Contact of Races
by wilkins75
Summary: Sequel to Contact at Kobol (Stargate/Battlestar). The Race has thrived for hundreds of thousands of years and who recently conquered their 5th world are heading toward Tosev 3, Earth believing the conquest to be ease against the sword swing savages. Little do they know that those sword swing savages are now one of if not the most powerful force in the Galaxy, the Tau'ri.
1. Chapter 1

**This is a sequel to Contact at Kobol, a Stargate Battlestar cross over story. I will be bringing in characters and bringing up moments from that story. I will try to explain what happened in the events but for a more deeper understanding please go read Contact at Kobol. Now I hope you enjoy the start of the story.**

 **Chapter 1 A Fateful Choice**

 **Earth Year 1118 AD**

The great empire of the Race, the most dominate and powerful species in all of history of the Galaxy was at a moment of great decision. The males and females of the race had over the course of their thousands of years of history had spread out from their home world, called Home and had conquered two other worlds and the primitives natives which had once ruled their world. They had flourished under the rule of their emperor for 100,000 years who along with all the emperors of the past would judge and look after every member of the race and now their two subject races the Rabotevs and the Hallessi. Now thousands of years after they had conquered their second world the population of the race had reached the levels that the long-term planners which guided their lives agreed that the population too much for their home to stand. A new world was needed to vent the extra population that would be here in a few hundred years. The answer was the same answer as it was the last two times, a new world was needed. So the scientist of the Race followed the same protocols that where developed long before they came out of their eggs and sent out their probes toward the distance stars that could possible support life. They were hopeful about two most of all a world which rotated on the outside of the habitual range of the star Tosev called Tosev 3 and other world in a crowed system around the star Vantic, Vantic 5. It took years for the probes to arrive at their destination and to gather the data needed before sending that information back to the scientists and planners of the Race to study.

The warm sun of Home beat down outside as the males and females of the race spent a lovely summer days outside. Watching from her top floor stood the head scientist in charge of finding a new world for the future not yet hatched members of the race to live on. She watched them below with two turreted eyes that could move indepentaly. Even from the great distance she was seeing them from she could still make out the body paint that all citizens beings used to ID their rank and job without the grand order that was their society. She was too far away to make out all the small differences in scale patterns but she could see the general patterns of brown with a few rare members having more tan scales then normal. In ancient records it was said that tan was almost as common as brown but over the untold number of generations brown had all but replaced tan. She opened her mouth and breathed in the scents over her scent receptors, her long rows of needle like teeth showed that her privities ancestors had been hunters, each of her hands was tipped with claws that could be used to defend herself if needed. Not that she would violent crime was almost unheard off and she was a female, males still used their claws to fight other males when the mating season came but she didn't need them.

"Excuses me superior female." said a voice from behind her as she turned one of her eyes around to see a figure standing in open doorway. The eye turret turned almost 180 degrees allowing her to see behind her without turning her whole body. The figure was a male she knew well as her second in command and only outranked by herself on this task, seeing him she turned around and faced him head on. Since she was the higher rank he was bent over into the poster of respect. His tail stump where long ago a much longer tail would have been there to help stabilize them on the run and to foil larger predators and prey which end held the teeth was raised up slightly.

"Arise." ordered the female as she turned around, the stump of her tail hitting the glass as she walked forward. "Tell me has the probe returned any information yet?"

"Yes, by Emperor we have information coming from the probe to Vantic 5 as well." Said the male as both cast down their eyes briefly at the name of their sovereign. The emperor had ruled over Home since it was unified, his soul would sit in judgement of their own souls along with the souls of every other emperor in the long history of the race.

The female nodded her head as she thanked the spirits of emperor's past for that, she didn't want to go to the head of the council of science and explain why one of their probes which had been refined and tested so nothing could possible go wrong had somehow gone wrong.

"Any idea why there was a delay in broadcasting?" inquired the female, if she knew what had taken so long she would be better able to justify the delay of her report she had to write about the potential of Vantic 5 for conquest and colonization. Plans were meant to be followed and no member of the race wanted to be at fault for causing a plan to fail, however explaining why a plan failed to follow the schedule was accepted if it was outside anyone's control.

"It would appear judging form broadcasts that a small asteroid in Vantic system hit the main radio dish and the secondary systems had to take over, to avoid duel messages coming out there is a preprogramed delay of a week." explained the male as both knew that the secondary system wouldn't have taken over at once and only after the onboard computer ran through multiple attempts to bring the main system back would it switch to the backup. The female opened her mouth again, that was a good answer. The science and planning councils couldn't blame her or anyone else for the probe hitting an asteroid when they had no way to map the distance star system.

"Gather the teams we will begin to look over the imagines taken from Vantic 5 and Tosev 3." ordered the female as she extended her clawed tipped to take the two files from the male, each one was lalbed with the names of each world. She flipped open the first one, the one they had expected to come in today Tosev 3. She moved her eye turrets in a way that showed her disappointment as she looked at all that blue liquid water on the surface.

"We estimate that 71% of the surface of the planet is water and parts of the land masses are on the very cold end of our acceptable limits. The probe reported frozen water on some parts of the planet." explained the male. Outside of a lab and sometimes the north and south pole frozen water was unheard of on Home. As she studied at the world she liked it less and less, it had two main continental masses. One massive one with another much smaller one which ran from North to south connected by a small strip of land. There was a lot of green, green meant forests and forests where rare on any world of the empire, sand and grasslands was what a proper world should have. Even so Tosev 3 did have some good spots, the middle part of a massive island off the main continental mass looked promising along with the large desert which could be seen on the main continental mass. A smaller desert was visible on the lesser continental mass. Even so all that water and green was a major problem, however the planet was large and the land mass would be enough to solve the expected population problem.

The next couple of images showed the primitives, they were big and ugly looking. With fur on the top of their heads and in the case of some around their mouths. They had multiple colored of soft looking skin and didn't have the clean scales that the race had or even the scales patterns that both the Rabotevs and Hallessi had. They were very primitives still riding animals and wielding spears and swords. The most advanced one she saw was a tall Tosevite on a great beast dressed in metal armor with a sword on his belt, a rusty spear and a wooden shield with a red cross on it. They would be an easy conquest if the Emperor and the planners did choice Tosev 3.

"Ugly and primitive." stated the female as she opened the next file and was greeted by a better sight. The planet of Vantic 5 had more liquid water on it then any of the other worlds in the emperor but it was only 36% liquid water and that was mostly located in two large oceans at the pole. The weather was a little on the cool side but it was better than Tosev 3 here froze water could only be found as sea ice at the far polls and on the highest mountains. Large tall grasslands covered a lot of the planet however there where not as many deserts as she would have liked to see, grassland was better than thick forests. There were some forests visible from orbit but not as much as they were on Tosev 3.

The issues with Vantic was three-fold, first the system itself was messy a lot of small asteroids would play havoc with shipping in the future, the time needed to clean up the system would be planned for. The second was that planet was slightly smaller than the world the type of world they wanted, that would raise some issues with the number of members of the race that it could support. The main reason they were going to have a soldier's time and raise an army which they normally didn't have was to solve the population issues. It was unclear if Vantic 5 could do that. Those issues where troublesome but it was issues that could be solved in time and more research. The last issue was natives of Vantic while primitive was hundreds of thousands of years more advanced then big ugly creatures of Tosev 3.

The native Vantic where extremely tall double the height of a member of the race and appeared slightly taller than a Tosevite which would be the tallest race in the empire if they joined. The Vantic appeared to be large insects and moved four legs coming out a large body which contained two large claws in the front and one in the back. On the main part of their body they had two arms with five digits located three in front with two in back. All five appeared thumb like in nature, from what they could see through the wrappings they wore over their bodies they had a semi harden shell of a body which had no visible scales and came in multiple different shades of green. They had a tan chest and under body which was segment. Their faces where triangle in shape with two large eyes which wrapped around the fronts and extended somewhat into the side of their face. Their lips where the strangest thing any of them had seen, instead of a hard-flat line which marked their mouth or even the fleshly ones the Tosevites had they had what appeared to be tiny free moving digits which moved food into their mouths.

All that would be looked over whenever they decided to conquer them the main issue was that they were much more advanced they were compared to the Tosevites. The Vantic clearly developed gun powder that was clear from the primitive guns they carried even so they appeared to still use mostly swords, spears and pikes to fight wars. They had rolling cannons pulled along by large eight legged beasts, judging from the design of the guns they appeared to be just as primitive in nature as their other firearms. They also had multiple city empires which seemed to control only a certain area judging from the colorful banners they flew from different locations. The most common form of transportation seemed to be either animal cart or walking so they were still hundreds of thousands of years behind the Race. That would make conquest of them slightly harder than it would be for the Tosetives.

"Superior female if I may inquire which world do you feel would be best for our conquest?" inquired the male.

"We will need more study of course but I would say Vantic would be out best choice, we can wait on conquering Tosev 3." Stated the female neither race would be a real threat to them but they had more time with the Tosevites then they did with the Vantices. "Either way we must prepare the date for the Emperor and his ministers to decide which world we want to add to the Empire."

 **Earth Year 1812**

Throughout the long 100,000 year history of the race a day like this had only come two other times. The last time was when the conquest of Rabotevs which was conquered 28,000 years ago followed by the conquest of the Hallessi 10,000 years ago. The debate of which world would be conquered, would it be Vantic 5 or would it be Tosev 3, each side had their benefits and the planners had been hard at work looking at which world would provide the greatest benefits to the Race and the Empire.

All over the Race's home world of Home males and females stopped what they were doing and awaited the official announcement of a solider time and which world would be conquered. Outside of conquest the race had no soldiers and it was known that whatever world was to be conquered the next couple batches of males hatched among them would have an chance to be soldiers. Plans were already drawn up to build the weapons of conquest including warships, killer craft and land cruisers which would carry out the conquest. Factories which normally made cars would make the land cruisers and infantry carriers while those who normally made shuttle craft would make killer crafts and attack helicopters. Factories would also begin to produce firearms, bullets and other smaller items needed for the conquest. Those preparations will take time to get into place and that would mean change to the Race. Change was something the Race avoided but this was a time that change would come and it would be for the best because without it the population of home would be too great which would cause its own problems.

Finally a Palace official moved out of the stripped wooden doors of the grand entrees and headed down multiple stone steps toward a podium with multiple microphones and cameras. His body paint showed him to be a senior palace official and aid to the emperor himself. He moved toward the podium and with one eye turret he looked down at the official degree from the Emperor and with the other he scanned the large group of reporters.

"By degree of the Emperor a Soldiers Time has been declared, a mighty fleet shall be built, soldiers shall be trained and weapons of conquest constructed." started the male, all that was already known but the next part would surprise everyone. "In his wisdom the Emperor has declared that Vantic 5 will be the target of our soldiers and settlers which will come after the conquest."

That news was broadcast across home using the network of communication satellites in orbit so that it was known almost at once by every male and female watching the news. What came next was the real surprise and something unexpected.

"After the conquest of Vantic and the arrival of the settlers the conquest fleet will then head on to conquer Tosev 3 and await the arrival of a second colonization fleet. This plan was settled on by the emperor to solve the population issue for several thousand years and all the advisors agree and so it shall be done." stated the male, that was real news never in the history of the race would they attempt to conquer two worlds at once. This would be a major period of change in the race and it made them unconformable, the only benefit was that they knew the conquests would be rather easy conquests.

 **Earth Year 1952 The Vantic System**

Fleet lord Atvar was about to become the 3rd member of the race to get the title of World Conquer, below him was the world of Vantic 5, the 1st target of the largest operation ever to be carried out by the Race in the thousands of years since the unification of home. The world was smaller then what they would have liked with two large oceans at the poles and it had more green then was normal however even with his bare eye turrets he could see stretches of sand from orbit. Those areas would be a perfect place for the colonist when they arrive in the system some 40 years from now and the grass lands looked very like home as well even if there was a lot more of them. By then they would have the world ready for them, the Vantic people wouldn't prove much of an issue. Satellites had confirmed what they already knew from the probe which had been set all those hundreds of years ago.

"Show me our enemy." Ordered Atvar as he turned to face the ship lord of the 127th Emperor Hetto, Kirel. Next to Atvar, Kirel as the ship lord of the banner ship of the conquest fleet was second in command and therefor had the second most integrate body paint over his scale covered body.

"It shall be done." said Kirel as he punched a button with his finger claw as images of the natives of Vantic five appeared. These where more recent ones taken with probes launched by the conquest fleet which now surrounded the planet. It showed the natives of Vantic moving through markets in cities dressed in the wrappings they seemed to like. In time, they would adapt to the much simpler, cleaner and efficient body paint that the Race and all their subject races used. Their soldiers wore large metal plates over their midsections and side flakes protected them with large helmets cut so that it wouldn't affect their vision. The soldiers moved around with a mix of curved swords, spears and what appeared to be very primate firearms that required the use of a long lighted piece of rope lowered into a pan to fire. Even so Atvar could see that the bullet fired by the gun which was actually just a metal ball was a very large caliber and would likely cause damage if it hit a male of the race.

"I see so as we expected." stated Atvar

"For the most part, we have spotted a single city empire near a large canyon which appears to have advanced to the point of actual early wheellock firearms." Stated Kirel as Atvar turned his gaze toward him.

"To go from where our probe studied them to wheellocks would have taken a couple more hundred years, yet they have advanced that far?" inquired Atvar "Amazing, these Vantic advanced quickly, we will have to focus on preventing them from changing the empire too much."

"Yes however, I most remind the fleet lord that our probe had no idea how to long they had the weapons they had. They may have been on the edge of inventing them when our probe studied them. We will need to study them more carefully to find out how fast they advance and how best to control them." stated Kirel "Either way it will not make that huge of a difference to the invasion itself."

"Agreed, now let us carry out the conquest." Stated Atvar still slightly concerned at the suddenly leap in technology that the Vantic people had done concerned him. Even so he felt the ship rock a bit as a much smaller ship detached from the starship, the ship would be full of Killer Crafts. The jet powered killer crafts needed to be lowered into the atmosphere to begin their assault, they did have a handful of space born killer crafts but those where supposed to deal with asteroids. The forests of Vantic would also be a problem but while they were more common and thicker than any other world in the empire but there were large areas for his land cruisers, mechanized combat vehicles to move through and there were also large deserts which would suit the race very well. Atvar looked at his scheduled time table, they were slightly behind schedule, the invasion was supposed to start five days ago but the systems asteroids had slowed down their ships arrival in orbit. Either way the plan estimated that conquering the Vantic people would take two weeks at the most, which was almost 10 days longer then the estimated time it would take them to conquer Tosev 3 when the fleet departed for that world after the arrival of the Colonization fleet and the settlement of the colonist.

So at the proper moments nuclear tipped missiles were fired into the atmosphere of Vantic 5, the massive fireballs adding a second sun into the sky for the natives below. With that done some of the starships dropped down into the upper parts of the atmosphere as jet power killer craft took off and began an air war against the primitives. Bombs began to fall and strafing runs where carried out as the first starships landed in the open spaces and began to unload their troops. Infantry males armed with assault rifles stormed out of their ships, Land cruisers with their heavy main guns and tracks dug into the soil of Vantic 5. The infantry carriers carried the infantry males into battle along with helicopter gunships. The walled cities of the natives of Vantic 5 where no match for the guns of the attackers, helicopters gunships mowed down brave warriors of Vantic 5. The heavy rolling cannons that the people of Vantic used was no match for the much more advanced guns of the Race.

The one advantage they had was the lay out of the cities, the streets where too narrow for land cruisers and other vehicles to move down with ease so infinitary males had to go in to take the cites. Here up close and personal the natives where able to strike back with swords and bladed weapons, even so one by one the great city states of Vantic 5 began to fall under the control of the race. Until days after it began the conquest the last city fell and the official conquest of Vantic 5 ended.

 **Earth Year 1989, the Vantic System**

Fleet lord Atvar conquer of the Vantic 5, stood in his command center inside the new city that the Race was building in one of the warm friendly deserts which was in the Northern part of Vantic 5. So far the conquest had been almost a total success, they had conquered the Vantic and their small emperors ruled by a very strange system. Instead of a single emperor which ruled them like all the Races they had encounter before. The Vantic instead had multiple families in any given city state which tended to fight among themselves for rule through a complex and confusing mix of political, business and even mating alliances. Either way they had fallen with 10 rotations and then the conquest moved into the stage of preparing the planet for the colonist. That involved teaching the Vantic the proper ways of their new culture and their place within it. This proved more difficult than they would have liked because even as the fighting stopped, the Vantic people began to fight back with terrorist attacks.

They have proven to be a pain under his scales but a minor one and one that was slowly fading as failed uprisings followed fail uprisings. In time, all his experts agreed they would come to terms with the fact that they had lost and accept their new cultured ways. The telephone hissed on his desk, when he hit the button the image of another male of the race appeared. This one in body paint the equal to his own, that meant that this could Fleet lord Reffet commander of the Colonization fleet. He was the only member of the race who would be his equal.

"I great you Reffet." Said Atvar

"And I great you Atvar." responded Reffet "I come to understand that you are not on schedule with our plans and that there are some problems?"

"Only minor ones, the natives where slightly more advanced than we thought and they have a strange focus with parentage and linage that covers each of them." explained Atvar "They each take pride in what their ancestors did and who they were."

"Fools, aside from the line of the Emperor what does it matter about lines of ancestors it is up to you to earn your own honor." stated Reffet as both males looked at the ground, a sign of respect to the emperor. When it came to mating among the Race and the other two subject races the Hallessi and Rabotevs they mated with whoever once a the season came over them. When it wasn't the mating season it wasn't even in their minds.

"I agree; however this has caused them to fight back harder then we expected, see like us they do have a mating season but they are bonded to one another and they mate only with that single mate." Stated Atvar with distain in his voice. "This has caused issues when we have killed or harm a mate, because the other living mate or their kin will attack us. They do not have the power to do much harm but they attack none the less it has slowed us down in ways that is disappointing."

"I see, and will this change the schedule in any major way?" inquired Reffet, to which Atvar gave the negative hand gesture.

"No, not in any real harmful way." Stated Atvar "I am going to leave you more of our soldiers then originally planned and I will delay the departure for Tosev 3 by 5 rotations, that would be 10 of our years. By then the resistance should be all but rooted out and settlements finished. The soliders I leave behind will be more than enough to handle any terrorists we haven't located yet and watch our settlements."

"The plan was to have you leave within 4 native rotations or 8 years, not 10 years." Stated Reffet with some annoyance however it was an understand deviation from the schedule. "Very well, I will arrive with our colonist soon and we can work together to hopefully get you underway sooner."

"How much could 10 years matter against sword swinging savages." Said Atvar

"Agreed, I understand that you have found something interesting, that didn't appear on our prob." Stated Reffet as Atvar gave the affinitive gesture.

"Yes, an unknown element was discovered and the early research done by the scientists of the conquest fleet show that it is highly conductive of electrical energy and that it could revolutionize our electronics." Stated Atvar, not that he nor any living citizen of the empire would live to see it. First the findings had to be confirmed, then samples would be sent to home for more study. Once everything was confirmed which would take centuries the planners would then study the likely effects it would have on the empire. That effort would take more centuries and then once all outcomes where studied and plans developed and put in place to counter any negative development this new element would be introduced in such a way that it would cause as little effect as possible on their civilization.

"That is most interesting how common is this element?" inquired Reffet

"Very common, the locals where using it to make common everyday items when we arrived." stated Atvar "Our probe missed it for some reason."

"Well mineralogy isn't the primary goal of the prob." countered Reffet as Atvar gave the affirmative gesture yet again.

"Truth, but still it concerns me, what else could the probe had missed." Admitted Atvar.

 **Earth Year 1999 Vantic System**

Atvar stood on the surface of the world he had conquered for the last time, his personal shuttle was waiting to take him up to the banner ship for the 35 year journey to Tosev 3, that would be almost 70 years on home but with so much time in cold sleep and the long life span of the Race, he would be still a middle age male when they arrived to add the 5th world into the fabric of the Empire. On some levels he wished the conquest fleet would have been launched from home and headed directly to Tosev 3, home was closer to Tosev 3 and in fact the Conquest fleet had went in the opposite direction to reach Vantic 5. There was no need to build two conquest fleets and have two soldier's times when they could only build one and do both jobs. He would be taking 500 of the 750 warships with him to Tosev 3 and there they would stay with just under 40% of his actual combat strength. Almost half of his force would be less trained combat engineers but considering the threat that the Tosevites would give him it would be more than enough.

"May you go forth and conquer." stated his former third in command Straha who would be assuming command of the remaining forces of the Conquest fleet in basically a holding action. The third in command the ship lord Straha who was more power hungry then Atvar would like would be staying behind, since he was more aggressive then the second in command Kirel, he would be best equipped to take down the terrorists. In the end Straha would get what he wanted, he would be a fleet lord even if he wouldn't be considered a conquer and Atvar would get Straha out from under his scales.

"It shall be done." said Atvar to his old subornation and aid before turning toward the shuttlecraft that would take him up to the conquest fleet, there he would go into cold sleep for the journey to Tosev 3 where he would add the 5th world and a 5 race to the empire.

 **Earth Year 2026**

Specialist David Goldfarb stood in the radar command center of one of the multiple Kusanagi defense stations which was spread out around the home system of the Tau'ri alliance. The goal of the massive space stations each of which was armed with a beam weapon capable of cutting through even the strongest known ship born shields was to defend Earth and the recently terraformed Mars and Venus. The native of London took a drink from his coffee as he remembered at only a couple years ago in 2020 the world hadn't heard of the stargate and now the people of Earth joined by another human world of Lanagara spread over 5 worlds with outposts on countless others. They controlled 20% of the galaxy and had defeated only a year earlier the 12 colonies of Kobol who wanted to put the people of Earth under their control. They were the unquestioned major power in the galaxy and they had bases in the Pegasus Galaxy.

David let out a sigh as he looked out the large window which lined one side of the wall. He could see the surface of Pluto, when he was a kid that barren rock ball had been a planet then it got demoted to a dwarf planet. He took a drink of his coffee and turned back to the seven people under his command. They were glorified air traffic controllers in fact aside from him and his second in command the staff was former civilian air traffic controllers. They were assigned along with similar crews on each of the multiple stations in the system to watch for oncoming threats. They also had the secondary job of guiding ships in and out of the system, once they cleared the Pluto defense line they would enter hyperspace and be out of their hair.

"Did you match last night." inquired Goldfarb's second in command, a native of Scotland.

"I did Timmy, too bad they had to call it because of the lightning storm." stated Goldfarb "Makes you wish we would use all this new technology to make a weather control machine, or at least put a roof over the pitch."

"I believe the second one would still be the easier one to do, even with all our new toys." Stated Timmy as he looked at the main radar screen, it wasn't radar but they still called it radar. It was in fact advanced sensors that could detect ships coming toward them in hyperspace from days away. At the moment the scopes where clear, the only ships where all Tau'ri ships. Mostly warships heading either from or to the colony world of Valhalla or Lanagara. "I believe they are going to finish the game tonight, if you are interested in watching it after we get off duty?"

"Sounds fun, we can head down to the mess hall and get a couple of beers and enjoy ourselves." Stated David with a laugh as he looked at the schedule for tomorrow. "So that group of asteroids we have been tracking is finally going to get a science vessel to go study them?"

The Archimedes class science vessels was among the rarest ship in the Tau'ri navy, with the war with the Colonials the number of warships built shot up a lot faster than originally planned and that meant the planned number of science vessels was down. As such there wasn't that many science vessels to go around and so projects that would have been studied much sooner had to be delayed.

"Yes, they have been waiting for those damn rocks to get closer so they wouldn't have to waste as much time getting to them." explained Timmy as he tapped a button and a holographic image of a radar display showing a large cluster of over 500 asteroids moving at almost the same speed headed on a path which would lead them just outside the orbit of Pluto. "We should have known what those rocks where much earlier, I know all the computers say they are rocks but I am still concern about them."

"So am I, but they are moving so slow and if they are a threat at that speed they are still months away from Earth and they would have to get past everything we have here." Stated David as he looked out the window just in time to see a flight of six Eagle space fighters fly by. In the distance, he could see one of their Missouri class battleships along with two escorting Daedalus class cruisers and two Galahad class Destroyers move past Pluto. He kept this eye on them as they opened a hyperspace window and disappeared into hyperspace. "No idiot in his right mind would come here."

"That is likely what they said on Valhalla before the Colonials appeared and fired a nuke." Countered Timmy "And that gave us a war, a war we won we ease but a war none the less."

"And we have updated our sensors, we know when that type of faster than light travel is used and we will have warning for that." countered David

"Yes, but what about the types we don't know about yet? How will we be warned about those?" inquired Timmy before letting the topic go. "Your right but I am still concerned."

"I can't argue with that." Agreed David as he looked at the multiple dots on the screen for a moment longer before turning them off again.

 **Out in the vacuum of space the conquest fleet of the Race moved toward their target of Tosev 3, they had journeyed through the stars, in pretty much a straight-line form Vantic 5.** Now that they were getting closer to their destination dominate ship functions came online. To avoid hardware breaking down after decades in space, systems tended to shut down and go into a standby mode with only a skeleton crew running the ship and monitoring the short-range radar and radio transmissions from Home. Lights turned on in dominate parts of the ship as sensors where turned toward Tosev 3 for the 1st time.

The operators onboard the ships of the conquest fleet wasn't expecting anything what they got surprised them. They were getting weak broadcasts from within the heart of the Tosev system, they couldn't understand it. They could detect broadcasts but their computers couldn't put it into any known radio types. What they didn't know was that their systems where just too primitive, the Tau'ri had advanced to such a point that while the systems of the race could tell something was there they couldn't tell what it was. Following the fixed command system the officer who detected the unknown broadcasts reported it up the chain of command until finally it reached the desk of Fleet Lord Atvar.

"Is this report real?" inquired Atvar as he turned a turreted eye toward his adjutant Pshing. As his adjutant Pshing's body paint was stranger than other males, half of his body paint showed his relatively low rank however the other half showed the complex body paint of Atvar. "We are getting broadcasts from Tosevite 3?"

"Not just Tosev 3, exulted fleet lord." Corrected Pshing "We have also gotten broadcasts from Tosev 2 and 4."

"Both planets are uninhabitable." countered Atvar as he thought about it. "How could we be getting radio broadcasts from the system?"

"Exulted fleet lord our best guess seams to be that the broadcasts are coming from the star itself." Stated Pshing "It could be a type of solar flare we have not seen before throwing off sounds into space that is bouncing off the planets or some other kind of natural event. There is no other logical answer, if it was coming from just Tosev three we could say it was possibly some other Empire had conquered it but Tosev 2 and 4 cannot support life in any way."

"Still this is concerning." stated Atvar "When will be range that our radar can get an image of the inner parts of the system?"

"Half a year." Stated Pshing, translated into the native orbit length which was double of the orbit of home, it would be three months. "We could turn them on now and get some information about the system but not enough. If I may exulted fleet lord I recommend that we launch one of our recon probes early and send it to study they system."

"Yes, that is what I was about to order. Prepare the probe for launch and send me the projected path and timetable for getting information from the probe." ordered Atvar

"It shall be done." answered Pshing as he went off to carry out the will of the fleet lord. It was a rather straight forward process and something that was on the conquest schedule drew up thousands of years ago. The only required changed to the probe was the flight path and the amount of time that the probe's rocket engine would burn. With that done the probe was launched leaving the banner ship on a flight path toward Tosev 3 even as the fleet as a whole began the process of slowing down to begin the turn toward the inner part of the system.

 **Unknown to the members of the race who programed the flight path they had sent it within a few hundred Kilometers of one of the Tau'ri early warning defense stations.** The probe was still multiple thousands of kilometers away but the sudden appearance of the probe from what was believed to be a large gathering of asteroids caused alarm bells to start going off. The first alarm bell happened on the radar watch deck where man and women monitored the space around the home system.

"What is going on?" inquired the head officer of the watch Specialist David Goldfarb.

"We have something launching from Asteroid Group D-34B." reported a radar operator as she looked down at her screen. "It is making a turn, it is not a natural break up. This thing is under power and it is speeding up."

"A missile?" inquired David

"Unknown, if it is it is moving too slow and it was fired too soon." answered the operator "If I were to place a bet, I would say it was a probe."

"You launch a probe from a ship." Stated Timmy as he looked at Goldfarb, "I don't think those are asteroids, I think they are ships. A lot of ships."

"I Better make the call." said David as he picked up a phone built into his work station and called the commander of the station. With that done the crew turned their attention totally on the group of asteroids, which were clearly not asteroids anymore. Within moments the sound of general quarters began going off followed moment later by the force of the station commander.

"General Quarters, General Quarters all hands man your battle stations." said the commander's voice, most people on the crew likely thought it was a drill then he went on. "This is not a drill all hands man your battle stations."

Then it got serious as men and women rushed to the battle stations, the multiple rail guns came online, the shields where brought up to full power and within moments Eagle fighters began taking off from the hanger below. The massive main beam cannon which was located in a long arm in the main part of the station swung toward the large group of asteroids which were clearly not asteroids anymore. It was too early to charge the weapon considering once it was charged it had to be fired but they made it combat ready Within moments the station was ready for a fight, all over the system alarms where going off as the Tau'ri 1st fleet went on high alert. Battleships, carriers, cruisers and destroyers began to move into a defensive stance as word rushed back to Earth and the high command.

 **Well I have returned after a short break where I have been relaxing somewhat, now I hope you enjoyed this start to the story. I will be bringing in some characters from Contact at Kobol, so if you haven't read that please go read that. I will also go back and wrap up some issues that couldn't have done before because of the time line of the stories and for those who would have rather have me go straight to my planned 3** **rd** **story which is a Mass Effect/Stargate story I will say. Please stay with me because I will be using elements I introduce here in the 3** **rd** **story. Now I thank you and please keep reading, Thanks Wilkins75.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2 The Shape of the Galaxy  
**

The world forever changed on October 20th 2020 when the average citizen of the world learned about the existence of a device that would forever change the way they saw themselves and the galaxy. On that day, the world learned about the existence of an alien device called the Stargate which could form a wormhole to any other stargate in a galaxy wide network and allow instant transportation to multiple worlds. The Stargate became the corner stone of a program ran first by the United States Armed Forces and later by most of the nations of Earth. Early in the life of the program they would meet a race of parasitic aliens called the Goa'uld inhabiting humans body, the descendances of slaves they had taken from Earth in the ancient past and still used as slave labor quickly stumbling into a war with the different Goa'uld factions. The people of Earth had many encounters with the Goa'uld gaining the name Tau'ri meaning those of the first world from the slaves.

The people of Earth didn't just gain enemies they gained friends the four most important friends they gained was first a faction of a warrior race for the Goa'uld the Jaffa. The Jaffa where enslaved themselves believing the Goa'uld where gods but some wanted to be free and in time with the help of the Tau'ri they began to rebel. The second group was an offshoot of the Goa'uld the Tok'ra, they were like the Goa'uld in almost every way only they didn't believe in slavery and worked with the human they inhabited in a symbolic way. The other two major aids to the Tau'ri where both advance race, far beyond the Tau'ri or the Goa'uld, they were the Nox and Asgard. Both races where members of an alliance of four great races with the greatest being the Ancients themselves the builders of the Stargate and the most advanced race in the history of the known galaxy. The peaceful Nox mostly stayed on the sideline helping on occasion however the Asgard saw great protentional in the people of Earth. With them at their side helping whenever possible the people of Earth along with the free Jaffa and Tok'ra where able to defeat the Goa'uld and free thousands of worlds from enslavement.

Sadly, the Asgard wasn't to last, they had used cloning technology to extend their lives for thousands of years and it caught up to them. With a sickness raging through them and no hope of a cure before they ended themselves they passed on their legacy to the people of Earth proclaiming them to be the 5th race in the great alliance of Races. By the time 2012 came around the Goa'uld where gone, another threat the crusading religious fundamentalist the Ori had been driven back to their own galaxy and in another Galaxy where the Tau'ri had rediscovered the Ancient's capital city ship of Atlantis the conditions where almost there to inform the world of the Stargate Program.

To make the people of the world ready for the Stargate new technologies where brought into the public knowledge. Technologies to clean up the decades of pollution, that cured sickness and improved people's lives. Great projects where undertaken however the greatest project was taking place off world. Then on October 20th 2020 the world learned off the stargate and the world changed forever. For a while everything was going according to plan as new technology came out and the people of Earth were looking forward to a golden future, however the storm clouds of war were already gathering.

It started just before the unmasking when a Tau'ri warship contacted a group of warships from the 12 colonies of Kobol. The humans of the colonies believed that Earth was one of their colonies and that they should fall into line with the rest of the children of the Lords of Kobol. Earth refused and a tense situation exploded when a group of colonial warships called Battlestars appeared over Valhalla and carried out a single nuclear strike on the new colony. The loss of so many people caused the blood of the Tau'ri to boil as the multiple nations of the Tau'ri united together against a common enemy. The Colonials where at a major disadvantage, they were centuries behind the Tau'ri alliance which was still integrating the technology that the Ancients and Asgard had left for them. What the colonials had was numbers they outnumbered the Tau'ri drastically when it came to men, material and ships. To overcome this advantage the Tau'ri used a time dalliance device to slow down time in the 12 colonies buying the Tau'ri four and a half years to build new ships, train new soldiers and integrate all the different nations together. During this time, the close allied world of Lanagara joined the Tau'ri and Mars and Venus where terraformed into worlds that could support life, bringing the total number of Tau'ri worlds to five.

When the Tau'ri hit they hit hard, the colonial military used tactics that where dated by the standards of the Tau'ri and within 48 hours the war was over with 75 million dead on the colonial side with only eight thousand dead on the Tau'ri side.

The main planner of the invasion of Tauron which was once the heart of the colonial military forces, General Leong sat behind her desk in her new office. The office was perfectly clean and was massive in scale compared to her first office when she was just a low-ranking officer in the People's Liberation Army. The office was lied out in a T shape with a personal secretary and waiting area outside. Inside the office was one area which was set aside for larger meetings with a command table capable of seating a dozen officers and putting up holographic images, across from that was a sitting area for more informal meetings with a coffee table even though she had a tea set sitting there and a full backwall bookcase. In the back part of the office was her main desk, a solid oak monster block U shaped desk. Walking up to it no one would notice any sign of a computer because the screen was holographic was well. Along one wall were multiple paintings and artwork from around the world. Along with a door leading into a small private bedroom in case she had to stay overnight at the office during an emergency. On the other side was a bathroom with a full shower for the same reason.

Not that she needed to go far if she had to stay, her office was in the newly finished Military Command building on the still half-finished city ship which would serve as the new Capital of the Tau'ri alliance. Her apartment was only a couple of blocks away. She turned around in her swivel chair and looked out the window at the setting sun, in the distance she could see the Capital building rising from the center of the massive city ship which was going to be almost five times the size of Atlantis. Unlike Atlantis this city would never fly it would instead once it was finished being built travel out to sea until it was in the Atlantic Ocean about midway between Europe and North America. That was still years away as most of the civilian sections of the city was not finished yet and only key government offices had moved. As the newly appointed commander of the Tau'ri military forces she was one of those.

The city was set up similar to Atlantis only the six points shooting off from the main central area where wider and the space between them where open water could be found was smaller. All six points where connected on the outside. From above the road system was straight forward, there was a main street running around the entire city along the sea wall with roads shooting straight down the middle of each arm before circling the still half-finished Capital Building in the center of the city. There was a main boulevard which was wider which ran straight north and south aside from when it went around the centurial area, a matching one also ran straight East to West but that wasn't the official boulevard. None of the streets where really needed, they had multiple forms of public transport ranging from teleporters system similar to what the ancients had in Atlantis to monorails which ran around the city. The boulevards where there for a few reasons. First to give people a more room to walk around in, each street was wide enough to drive on with a turn lane in the middle, the second reason was for parades and other events.

Her office was located in the military headquarters building located on the South arm beside a small military garrison. Which including a landing area for a Daedalus class cruiser, their larger ships couldn't land inside the city itself. Not fully, there was a civilian space/airport on the Western arm that could have a larger ship land on it however it was more designed for the smaller shuttle crafts which where becoming common. In time, the city would hold everything needed for a functioning government, Military headquarters along with headquarters for different civilian departments ranging from State to interior department. The two state of the art hospitals where already up and working and a university, the Daniel Jackson University was almost finished as well.

To the far North the Presidential estate was just being finished as well and in time the first elected President of the United Tau'ri alliance would move into the building. In all the city was about half way done, the major government buildings where done aside from the congress building and the multitude of museums that where going up. The main unfinished areas was, where the people who would call this city ship home would live. The apartments, malls and other living areas, those had hardly gotten started yet.

The Tau'ri congress Building, was going to be massive when it was finished was going to be located in the center of the city was something very interesting. Unlike the other city ships they had come across which was only a handful, it wasn't a tall spire shooting up into the air towering over the entire city. It was instead a domed building, a massive domed building that went out into a larger octagon shape which was covered with two rows of towering 100-foot-tall columns surround the outside with steps leading up to them. Inside would be a large rotunda which shot up to unrealistic height but it was what was approved by the nations of the world. Inside was where the Tau'ri House and Senate would be held, it was almost a perfect copy of the American system which was what was agreed too once again.

"Might as well call us the United States of the Worlds instead of the Tau'ri alliance." complained General Leong to herself before waving the issue away, it may be true that in the short run Americans would play a large role however in time the whole idea of American would fade until it meant very little. Same would be true about her home nation of China, which had the most votes of any one nation in the Tau'ri house because even with the massive migration off world they still had the largest population.

She reached for a button on her desk and instantly the glass frosted blocking out the view and making it slightly darker in the room. With that done she turned her attention back to the reports on her computer pad. Military action was the situation was very good, the Colonials where for the most part following the terms of the peace treaty however there were some painful exceptions to that. She moved past that to reports of a single Lucian Alliance ship and a Free Jaffa ships trading shots within a few lightyears of Lanagara.

That did concern her as she pulled up a tactical map of that part of space. Lanagara had a fleet of ships protecting her but she sat in the crossroads of six different free Jaffa and Lucian Alliance factions all of whom wouldn't mind a toss down with each other. If they carried out an attack on Lanagara then it would bring the Tau'ri into the war. What was worse was that all sides used the same goa'uld ships the Hataks, death gliders and the like. None of which was the equal to the Tau'ri battleships, carriers and Eagle space fighters however the Tau'ri while still the most powerful civilization had the fewest numbers of warships. If they wanted to and if they wanted to pay the high price, Lanagara could be taken in a long battle. That was highly remote, the more likely move was for one of the factions to carry out an attack on the Tau'ri with ships taken by another faction to bring the Tau'ri into the war against their enemies.

"Make sure intelligence gathering in consecrated on ship identification, we need to make sure we know what ships are in the area and which side they are on. Also build up more defense stations around Lanagara and early warning systems." wrote General Leong on note for herself. She then turned her attention next to the military budget which would be the next great fight on her hands. The military budget was massive for sure and they were still making warships in the shipyards of Valhalla and Mars was positioned to take over the production of civilian grade ships which would free up shipyards on Valhalla. The main issue would be that with peace the rate of ship launching was way down as money was diverted toward public works.

She rubbed her temples and stood up, it was time to call it a day. The minor reports would wait until morning. With that done she shut down and locked out her computer to preventing hacking, that was an old habit when she was worried about spy rings like the American CIA, the Russian Foreign Intelligence service and others. Now all those agencies where working on coming together like the military forces of the world where. She moved out of her office the armed guards snapping to attention as she left. She caught the elevator down to the ground floor and through the lobby pass that statue of General Jack O'Neill, the statue showed him in his off-world SG-1 uniform. She moved out of the lobby and into the street. With public transport and the teleportation system like what was used on Atlantis cars where not really needed. The roads where more for show and parades than anything else. Right now there was more construction crews in the city then actual government workers but that would change in time. She was about to head onto one of the monorails which ran around the city when her phone started to go off. She stepped aside and looked down at her wrist, a couple of years ago Apple of all things had come out with a wrist mounted video phone/computer. Since the power suits which was standards for all soldiers had a military version of the same thing it had caught on like wild fire with the newly civilian soldiers and sailors. She tapped the screen as the image of her aid came up.

"General, moments ago an outer defense station picked up a probe launching from a group of what we thought to be asteroids." stated the aid "We now believe what we thought to be asteroids may be a slow moving fleet."

"How many ships?" inquired General Leong

"We are still getting an estimate but at least 500 strong." Stated the aid as General Leong eyes narrowed. "They are moving extremely slowly, no sign of FTL or hyperspace we estimate that it will be at least a two days before they are within range of our defense line at Pluto and 3 months to reach Mars."

"Very well, get the staff together I am turning around now. I want Akula stealth ships to move to make first contact, I want information no actual contact." ordered General Leong "Has anyone briefed President Carter?"

"Not yet, no one is really sure what to do." Admitted the aid "She doesn't get sworn into office for another two weeks but she is already the President in all but name."

"Have her there." ordered General Leong as a normal day was turned upside down as she wondered who drop the ball and allowed a fleet to get so close to Earth.

 **Elsewhere on Earth the warm sun beat down on Private Tadeas Spiro, grandson of former Vice President Spiro of the 12 colonies of Kobol.** The native Sagittarian was likely the only colonial born human on Earth at the moment as he sat in a little tea shop on the banks of the Yamuna river, a side river of the great Ganges river in New Delhi, India. Not that the fact that it was India really mattered all the much now, with the formation of the Tau'ri alliance starting unofficially in 2012 and becoming official in 2020, there were open trade and travel borders to almost every place in the world. Now even off world was totally fine and could be reached in only a few hours if you stayed in system a few days if you went without stargate to either Valhalla, Lanagara or even if you wanted to the 12 colonies of Kobol or beyond. The native Sagittarian enjoyed the tea as a waiter likely a veteran of the war just like he was brought him some more.

"Thank you." said Tadeas Spiro in English as the Indian smiled at him as he poured the steaming hot liquid.

"No problem sir, if I may ask what did you do in the war?" inquired the server, Tadeas was in his day uniform. The light day uniform was very common dress in Tau'ri space, considering a lot of people where in the military and it tended to get people automatic veteran discounts at stores. It also allowed people who normally wouldn't have much in common to have something in common to talk about, that was the situation here.

"I drove a Leopard main battle tank? And you?" inquired Spiro

"I was a gunner onboard the battleship Shiva." explained the waiter before looking around. "You know I almost miss all the crowds."

Tadeas looked at the mass of humanity moving through the streets with all the experience of a 20 year old man who had seen battle. Being from Sagittarian he was used to crowds but this one was almost the equal of any from his childhood in the religious focus world of the 12 colonies of Kobol. It didn't help that he came from the main religious power family, that meant that when his parents defected to the Tau'ri mission on Caprica to escape religious prosecution they were wanted back badly. All that was behind him, the religious grip in the 12 colonies of Kobol was broken, well lessened at least. The entire 12 colonies of Kobol, now they were broken and where likely to remain broken for a while even with the Tau'ri helping them rebuild the stuff they had knocked down.

"I assume it was worse then?" inquired Spiro as the waiter nodded his head, the tea shop was almost empty so the waiter didn't have to worry about a lot of other people. Most people where actually in the river bathing themselves in a religious ceremonial.

"Yes, I admit considering all the trash and garbage having all the people living here made I don't miss the crowds that often. With the new purification technology, the air is clean and the mighty Ganges likely hasn't been as clean since humans started building cities along its banks." Stated the waiter "Amazing things that come from the Stargate."

"Amazing is an understatement." said Spiro as he took a drink from his tea cup.

"Sir, if I may inquire some more where are you visiting from?" inquired the server.

"I am stationed in South Korea." answered Spiro as the servers eyes darkened a bit, he like everyone else knew what that meant. Most of the nations on Earth, even those who were 3rd world backwaters in 2012 where now if not official members of the Tau'ri alliance where in in all but name. War torn nations in Africa, the middle East and central Asia where in the middle of rapid development in an effort to bring the world into a single standard. Only one nation refused to accept that everything had changed and it was there if anywhere a war would break out on Earth in the near future.

"I see, I was discharged and as soon as my wife gives birth I am settling on Venus of all places." Laughed the server. Like everyone who joined the military to fight the Colonials had the option of taking either a full pay for his time or get some of his pay in the form of land on either of the 3 worlds currently being colonized by the people of Earth and Lanagara. Lanagara had come late to join the Tau'ri but where full members with equal rights in the alliance and the only reason why land wasn't being offered there was while not as packed as Earth it was still full enough. A mass migration was taking place as people spread out, a lot of people where leaving from the most populous nations of India and China, and from places where it was crowded like Japan and South Korea. Still others went out to start new lives and to seek adventure.

"Congregations." said Spiro, it had been just over a year since the end of the Colonial War and the population was booming all the way around. There where multiple news reports about the new baby boom which was upon them as men and women returned home from the battlefield to start their new lives. Estimates where for a 5 to 7 percent increase in babies born each year which on the surface didn't seem much until you took into account that was for the entire population of Earth plus Lanagara so estimated current population of 14 billion people on both worlds would likely become over 18 to 20 billion within 15 years over five worlds. With the average life span likely to double almost at once to over a 150 years for a person in their mid-20s early 30s today due to medical technology from the Asgard and Ancients that number was going to go up higher and faster than it would have.

"Well I have to go." Said Spiro as he finished his tea and stood up and leaving the tea shop with a tip behind for the server using some of the Tau'ri money which was accepted across every nation in the Tau'ri alliance.

With that done he walked back to his hotel and then after grabbing his bags and paying his bill he was in a cab heading toward the airport, more of a space port now for the one hour flight from New Delhi to his station in Seoul. From what he had heard that flight would have taken around seven hours but with sub orbital flights it was cut down a lot. He could reach Mars or Venus in about that same amount of time but none of the shuttles flying around the system now didn't have hyperspace drives. As the shuttle took off, he wasn't looking forward to returning to duty but he was grateful that he was far away from his old home in the 12 Colonies of Kobol.

 **Far away from Earth in the 12 Colonies of Kobol on the world of Libran, an alarm was going off. Unlike almost all the other worlds in the colonies of Kobol, Libran had remained untouched by the war which had devastated the Colonies.** In their short and rather foolish war against the Tau'ri, they had seen only a handful of victories and those victories where questionable at best. When the guns finally stopped firing the Tau'ri had lost under 10,000 soldiers outside of the nuclear strike on Valhalla which started the war that killed over half a million people both military and civilians. The total Tau'ri dead was under a million people while the colonial causality when they were finally totaled was just under 76 million people mostly in uniform dead with almost a 168 million people wounded in some way or another. It was a totally one-sided war which had forever changed the colonies of Kobol and the people who lived there. The colonies which had once believed that they were the strongest power in the galaxy with the only threat coming from the machine race called the Cylons had learned that they were small fish in an ocean full of larger and stronger predators.

 **The alarm kept going off, it was likely the strangest alarm in the 12 colonies of Kobol outside of the Tau'ri military base on Aquaria.** When the sleeping figure's hand moved out from under the cover to turn it off, instead of turning off it instead started playing music. That wasn't strange that was common what was strange was the music being played and the mini holographic images which was being displayed. The image was of a castle with white walls and blue tower roofs with a large golden topped spire. Then the image changed along with the music to show a water filled grotto with a mermaid with red hair singing along with the song.

"Part of your world." Sang the mermaid as a second tap of the hand turned the song and the alarm off turning it back to a simple digital display of the local time on Labran. Slowly the figure sat up in bed and studied the alarm for a moment through half asleep green eyes.

"Possibly the most advanced piece of technology on the entire world and I have it as an alarm." Laughed former Private in the Colonial Army now full time University student, Acacai Drivas.

"Well that is what happens when your boyfriend is an officer in the Tau'ri military." said a voice from her open door as Acacai turned her eyes toward it to see her best friend and roommate Medea Carras who was standing in the doorway with a cup of tea in her hand.

"Your one to complain, you wouldn't be walking if the Tau'ri hadn't be Tau'ri technology growing new clone legs for the ones that you loss outside of Lezbha during the fighting." countered Acacai as Medea shrugged.

"I admit, I shouldn't judge Gods know enough people judge you for your relationship with Robert and mine for being friends with you." admitted Medea with a sigh, the two of them had been best friends since their first day at school and now shared a small apartment near their university on Libran. Medea was studying law while she was studying zoology. "A lot of people are still upset from the war, a lot of people lost loved ones or where injured themselves."

"Hasn't stopped them from going to the movie theater which are showing all the Tau'ri movies. Frak that song is from a movie called the Little Mermaid from Disney and that has been sold out for a whole week straight." stated Acaci as she looked to where the stupid hat she had to wear at work sat on top of the desk along with her university text books on the different animals of the 12 colonies, beside it was a handful of books about Tau'ri animals. "But then again all those things are new and people like things that are new."

"Speaking of that, I see you don't remember what day it is." stated Medea as Acaca blinked for a moment her copper red hair moving in front of her eyes.

"Wait, it is the 17th isn't it?" inquired Acaca as her eyes moved to the packed suit cases which rested beside the closet door. On top of which sat a folder with their tickets first to Aquaria and then with multiple background checks for their flight from Aquaria to Vahalla, known as Kobol in the 12 colonies.

Her boyfriend of almost a year Robert Lefeld, a newly promoted Captain in the Tau'ri 101st airborne stationed on Aquaria had pulled some strings and gotten the two of them on the first flight to Valhalla. She and Acacia would be joining Robert and his family in a 10-day vacation, it would be the 1st time she would meet his parents on top of grandparents and extended family that would have worried her anyhow but the fact that she was Colonial and he Tau'ri add to her concern. She had to laugh to herself about how she met him, when he placed the barrel of his gun to the back of her head and took her prisoner outside of the city of Lezbha on Tauron.

He had shown a strange amount of kindness after that, more then she had expected from the Tau'ri officer who was supposed to be her enemy and they were just over 3 years apart in age. What made this relationship work was that he was stationed on Aquaria where the Tau'ri had set up their base.

"Yes, which means that we must be at the space port for our flight to Aquaria in five hours." explained Medea "Then seven hours later we will be getting on a Tau'ri ship to go to Kobol, or maybe we should call it Valhalla. We wouldn't be able to go if your paratrooper boyfriend hadn't pulled a few strings to get us on one of the first civilian flight between the Colonies and the Tau'ri. You did remember to tell him that your parents were going with us to Aqauria to meet him?"

"Yes, of course I did, I am meeting his on Vahalla." said Acaca as she stood up and stretched a bit.

"And you did tell your parents he is Tau'ri?" inquired Medea

"I told my mother that a long time ago." stated Acaca with a roll of the eye. "Now I better get ready. I wonder what Robert is doing now?"

 **A Bullet flew through the air bouncing off the side of a Tau'ri owl transport flew through the air over a city slum on the nearby colonial world of Sagittarian.** Unlike Libran who had accepted peace, Sagittarian which had been a hotbed of religious extremist had yet to fully accept that the war was fully over. They didn't want to accept that they had to accept that other religions where now allowed and that they couldn't force the religion of the Lord of Kobols on others.

"Another peaceful day in the 12 colonies." laughed a paratrooper as the owls flew toward a staging area. "Don't you think so Captain?"

"More like a peaceful day on Sagittarian." countered the newly promoted Captain Robert Lefeld of the 101st airborne division. He like everyone on the owl was a veteran of the night jump on Tauron, they had all seen combat and they now had the task of backing up the still reforming Colonial military. Unlike the others he had been on Valhalla when the nuclear strike took place which had started the whole war, his likeness was forever enshrined both in the photo of the flag raising of the Tau'ri flag when the Chinese and American Paratroopers rose the fallen Tau'ri flag outside Disney World Valhalla. That photo had becoming engraved into history along with other images from that day and a statue of it now stood in the memorial park. "The other colonies aren't bad, hell they are very fun."

"You are one to talk Sir." Laughed a fellow trooper "Your lady friend is from Libran right."

"And I met her on the battlefield, I am going on vacation with her once this mission is over." laughed Robert as the crew compartment laughed a little, Robert had come up through the ranks and he knew that working well with his men meant sometimes letting them rip on him. "War is on strange thing isn't it."

"60 seconds!" yelled the pilot in the back the front of the Owl, now the joking was over as the engines wined as the thrusters brought the Owl toward the ground.

"Lock and load, I want your stun rounds ready do not go live rounds without orders." ordered Lefeld as he took command of the unit, the rest of his 150-strong company where in the following Owls or on standby alert at the nearby space port. The area had already been locked down by Colonial military and police forces however they would be the ones who would do the operation. The owl touched down and the paratroopers rushed off the back ramp only to be greeted by some special forces who were holding the park as a landing zone.

"Welcome to fun town." said an officer in heavy Russian accented to Robert.

"Captain Robert Lefeld, 101st airborne." Introduced Lefeld as his man fanned out to reinforce the special forces.

"Colonel Drugov, Spetsnazs." introduced the Russian "My team has recovered some of the missing children and sadly we can't pull them out on fast ropes due to gun fire by some locals who are not so happy to let them return to their parents. Your mission will be to hold this area, while we head into the hornet's nest and pull them out."

"Yes, sir." said Lefeld "I will have two fast response teams standing by for backup if you need it."

"If we need it we will call." confirmed Drugov as he moved out and Lefeld began to position his man as best he could. So far the local Sagittarian where only throwing rocks at them not shooting at them with any firearms like they had on their way in. With that Lefeld took up the task of making sure none of his soldiers opened fire on the Colonial civilians throwing rocks at them. In his helmet, he could access video feed from the Owls flying over the scene. He could see that the Colonial police where doing only a half ass job of keeping everyone inside and making sure no one rushed into the area with any weapons. He turned his attention toward the special forces as they reached a tiny house. After a couple of moments they came back out with a group of five children raging from the toddlers to teenagers. The toddlers had to be carried along with some of the older kids however one of the teenagers was actively fighting the soldiers.

"ETA 1 minute coming in from the west." radioed Drugov as Lefeld moved toward the western path. When the special forces came around the corner the colonials gave them space even as the Tau'ri kept their guns on them.

"Help they are kidnapping me!" yelled the teenager as he tried to punch and kick the Tau'ri solider holding his skinny frame off the ground. He looked dirty and covered with old wounds, his hair was matted with dirt and even with the built-in air scrubbers Lefeld could smell that the child hadn't showered in a long time. He had open soars on his body and had massive bruises and scars mostly on the back.

"Let ME GO!" yelled the teenager as they reached the Tau'ri line. The other children seamed too stunned to do anything more then move along with the Tau'ri.

"GIVE US BACK OUR CHILDERN!" yelled a group of older adults from outside the line, as the Airborne troopers raised their weapons but didn't fire into the ground. All of them had stun rounds in the magazines of their SIR-15 assault rifles but with a simple switch of the magazines they could go full live rounds and even the high explosives rounds that the colonials used in their guns.

"Grandma, Grandpa save me! I don't want to go! My Faith is strong! MY FAITH IS STRONG!" yelled the teenager as he was half pushed half carried toward the Owl which was descending to pick up the children.

"How many of the missing children have we found?" inquired Lefeld as he looked toward Drugov who was eyeing the two grandparents of the boy.

"About 75%, the colonials only handed over about a third of them after they signed the treaty." answered Drugov as the Tau'ri looked out at the angry faces, the screaming and cursing grandparents. "Sometimes I wonder what the future for these kids will be, some of these kids like that boy there has basically been brainwashed by his grandparents. He was living in his own waste and chained to a wall for his religious reeducation. He is going to have spend most of the time cursing his parents and the therapist on Aquaria then anything else. Also taking away children does not make us look good even if we are returning them to their parents from those who kidnapped them because in the eyes of most Sagittarians it wasn't kidnapping."

The roar of the Owl taking off caused both officer to look at the dark shape heading off world.

"We will not find them all." admitted Lefeld

"We will find them." countered Drugov "The question is will we find them alive or not. Another team pulled a pair of twins that had been missing since their parents were taking to the religious education camp. They had been killed by their own Grandmother because she wouldn't return them to their parents who don't believe in their lords of Kobol. Better to die believing in her Lords of Kobol then live believing in something else, in her crazy view. Didn't even attempt to hid it when we knocked down the door and was too much of a coward to take her own life."

"What happened to her?" inquired Lefeld

"Took her to Aquaria for her day in court, she would get off here. Personally I wouldn't have blamed the team if they had put a round in her head, but they didn't." stated Drugov as the owls came in and the Tau'ri began to pull back. "I don't understand these colonials, they are religiously crazy. Millions dead in the war and they want to keep fighting for their Lords of Kobol."

"Not all of them. Even to most Colonials Sagittaron's are crazy." Countered Lefeld as a shoot rang out and both of them got down on one knee and raised their weapons scanning the area.

"Who fired." Inquired Lefeld as his command checked in, none of his paratroopers had fired. Last outpost confirmed that a man with a rifle had taken a shot at them only to disappear back into a building.

"Enough of them are crazy." Countered Drugov as the last Tau'ri owl came in and both officers got on board while a crew member kept the crowds back by aiming his minigun at them. The owl lifted off and the gun swung back inside as it headed back up into space before the short journey to Aquaria.

"I am just happy to be going on vacation." admitted Lefeld as Drugov chuckled.

"Really where are you going?" inquired Drugov

"My girlfriend has become obsessed with Disney and I was part of the airborne team that rose the flag so I get in for free." explained Robert with a slight smile. "I am actually going to meet her parents on Aquaria when we get back."

That caused the Russian to look at him with a questioning look.

"She is a colonial, from Libra meet her when I took her prisoner in fact in Lezbha." Explained Robert as ready for a fight, some people tended to hate colonials with a passion. He knew that came from the fact they had been at war only a short time ago and it was likely that way with veterans of WW2 when it came to the Japanese and the Germans, but he still didn't like it. Not when the woman he loved was the one being hated.

"I have been to Libra one of the only worlds where we aren't hated." stated Drugov with a smile "Really good food. I hope you and your girlfriend have a good time."

"So, do I but I am meeting her parents on Aquaria and she is meeting my family on Valhalla." Said Robert "Should be interesting."

 **Unaware to the Lefeld the operation had been filmed by a local news crew and had gone out to other colonials.** One of the people watching the broadcast was the sitting President of the 12 Colonies of Kobol Laura Roslin. She sat in what had become the Presidential office in Delphi while the Caprica City was being rebuilt. Caprica City had been whipped off the map by a Tau'ri super weapon called the Ragnarok but it wasn't a nuclear weapon.

Somehow the Ragnarok broke down compounds into their basic electronics, protons and neutrons and then rearranged them into whatever the Tau'ri wanted. They had whipped out a whole city without even harming the people in the city leaving only an empty field. The new capital would be almost a perfect match to the old one, however they had lost a lot priceless art and historical documents which had been stored in the museums around the city. They had replicas of the documents, some of them as old as the original documents but it wasn't the same. Some of those items lost where the original articles of Colonization which was where all the Colonies signed when they formed their new government, the defense of Hypatia painting which showed a major victory in the Cylon War. Those where gone, she was now the leader of a defeated force.

That fact was very clear as she looked away from the TV and to a map of Caprica City, near the new Capital Mall which was shaped like a plus sign would be something that hadn't existed in the Colonies since unification, a row of Embassies. The largest of the Embassies would be the Tau'ri but it wasn't alone there was also an embassy for the Cylons and space for other smaller powers in the Galaxy. The Cylon embassy would be the main problem however there was nothing she could do about it.

"Sagittarian will be up in arms about this." stated the head of the Colonial Military Admiral William Adama.

"Again." added Vice President Gaius Baltar as he took a drink of his own cup of Tea. "They have been up in arms since we surrender."

"Yes." Admitted Laura "I have to admit, I am not that upset about having to return children to their parents but it doesn't look good on TV."

"No, it doesn't look good." admitted Admiral Adama before letting out a sigh. He was in command of all Colonial Military forces but he knew that meant next to nothing, the land forces had been crushed by the Tau'ri and his entire Colonial Navy was made out of 24 ships. Before the Tau'ri attack, they had fleets in the thousands with huge battlestars at the heart with countless wings of viper space fighters. His largest ship could only hold a single flight of six Vipers. "They don't seem to understand that we stood no chance of winning and overall the Tau'ri have been very generous to us. Our people would be starving if it wasn't for Tau'ri shipping grain and other food stocks around the colonies. We are still rebuilding our shipyards and we lost a lot of ships."

"We lost a lot of everything." Stated Laura as she looked toward the TV. The broadcast had changed to an image of the beautiful soon to be second Lady Dr. Jenny Oldstone. She was standing in front of the newly open Caprica City General, since Laura wasn't married there was no 1st man to take up some of the ceremonial roles. The public was more than happy with the beautiful woman who was soon to marry the vice President. There was already talks that she would officially enter politics next election and with her popularity she would easy become a major player in the Quorum. Laura looked toward her vice President, he was the real political power in the office. He had spoken the truth about the upcoming defeat at the hands of the Tau'ri had that had catapult him to the vice President office. When her 5-year term as President was up, he would follow her and barring any issues he would win all three terms that a President could hold before reaching the term limit. Fifteen years under President Baltar and by then Dr. Jenny Oldstone, now Dr. Jenny Baltar could be in place to run and maybe win all three terms as well. The Colonial Government of the 12 colonies of Kobol unless something unforeseeable future would be under the control of Dr. Guise and Jenny Baltar. "But yes, the Tau'ri could have beaten us into the ground a lot harder when it comes to peace terms. We basically had to just declare them free and independent and given what they are capable of how could we do anything else, recognized their territory and allow freedom of and from Religion."

"They could have turned us back into stone slinging savages if they had used that Ragnarok ship more but they didn't." stated Baltar with a smile as he looked at his soon to be wife making a speech, only he knew that she was in fact a humanoid cylon. With the two of them working carefully the Colonial government would be under the semi control of the Cylons for the next 30 years. "Besides like our President has said, they could have been at harsher to us and we should be grateful for that. Imagine if this was the Cylon forcing their will on us?"

"I don't want to imagine what life would be like under the Cylons." said Laura as she let out a sigh, she wouldn't even be alive if it wasn't for the Tau'ri medical technology which had cured her cancer. "In the end we were fools to go against the Tau'ri."

"I pity the next fool to challenge them." added Admiral Adama, knowing that challenge wasn't going to come from the Colonial military in any organized form.

 **Fleet lord Atvar couldn't sleep, he closed his eye lids but sleep avoid him. Like all the other males of the conquest fleet at the moment he floated in space.** To get gravity on the ship he would have to order the ship to start spinning to simulate gravity. He couldn't rest, he didn't know why but he felt like a dangerous animal was stalking him across the deserts of home. He knew he shouldn't feel that way, he was in command of a fleet full of warships and warriors, he had conquered a world and was about to conquer another.

"How could we be getting broadcasts from Tosev 4, 3 and 2?" said Atvar to himself it made no sense, if it was a solar flare of some kind then how come they weren't getting the same type of broadcasts from Tosev 1 as well. In the end he let it go, he would let the problem sit while he gathered more information that is what any member of the Race would do. Still he moved toward his computer and sent a message back to Home about the sudden discovery. With that done, he once again tried to get some rest. Little did he know that his fleet wasn't alone, three cloaked Tau'ri Akula class stealth ships had just come into visible range and had begun the task of gathering information about the sudden threat.

 **Well I hope you liked this chapter, I have reintroduced some people from Contact at Kobol which I am bringing back into the story as well as filling in background information for anyone who hasn't read that story. I hope you enjoyed it and I hope you keep reading. Wilkins75.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3 Recon**

Across the Conquest fleet the males which were not in hibernation in cold sleep where for the most part asleep themselves. They were following the standard day over their capital of Preffilo back on Home, therefor it was in the middle of the night and the bulk of the males who were out of cold sleep where asleep. The ships where as quiet as a tomb with the only real activity happening on the bridge and in the engine compartment where workers monitored the nuclear pile. It wasn't the middle of the night for the three Akula stealth ships which were approaching the fleet, in fact the entire crew of each ship were at the combat stations, the single Asgard beam weapon on each ship was ready to charge, the rail guns where maned and the missile crews where standing by to fire. Even so the most important members of the crew where the radar and sensor officers on each ship.

Each ship was moving in under cloak so they were invisible not only to the naked eye but to all standard sensors, to the enemy radar they were no there and if anyone was looking out a window they would have seen nothing. The Colonials had developed a way to detect a cloaked Akula class ship using their Dradis system to track any space junk which bounced off the side of the ship, however that was only useful near a planet where junk was around. There was no junk here and with their powerful sensors the Akulas began to get information about the unknown fleet.

"They are moving slow and are slowing down in fact." reported the radar operator on the first Akula. In truth it wasn't radar but advanced Asgard and Ancient sensors but the name stuck. "Judging from their path I think they are going to make a turn toward Earth."

"I see, how many ships estimates was 500 ships." inquired the Captain

"Close, 514 ships." said the radar man with a shake of the head. "Most of them are uniform in size, yes there are a few smaller ones but most are all around the same size. Anyone looking at the data should have known this wasn't a group of asteroids."

"The computer system, read them as asteroids because of their slow speed and in a standard long distance scan the computer likely only did a count of the contact not their actual size." Stated the second radar man, who was in fact a woman. "The real issue is that we didn't send someone out to check these out sooner or at least used a more detailed focused scan to get a better idea of the make up the asteroid group. Instead we saw that the computer read it as asteroids and we moved on."

"That is a concern for another day, have you learned anything else about them?" inquired the Captain.

"Judging from their flight path, they likely came from this star group here." said navigation as she pulled up a holographic map. "At the speed, they are going they must have been at it for a very long time, 35 years or so."

"Alright mark down the location and make sure it is sent to Earth, we will likely be paying them a visit, how long would it take us to reach there?" inquired the Captain.

"Around 7 hours at our standard speed if we pushed the engines we could cut that about in half." answered Navigation

"Any weapons?" inquired the Captain.

"I have a few missile launchers along some of the ships but overall no." answered tactical "I also am getting no shields of any kind or visible ways to protect a shield. Also no sign of beam technology in either weapons or transport kind. No sign of even of even artificial gravity."

"I see." stated the Captain as she ran her hand under her chin as some of the worry left her face. The threat was still there but they weren't dealing with something that couldn't be a huge threat to the Earth. With no shields, their slow speed and only a handful of missiles, the three Akulas under her command could destroy the entire fleet without much in the way of trouble. If they allowed them to get closer and within range of the defense stations and the rest of the 1st fleet it would be like shooting fish in a barrel.

"Any idea who they are and why they are here?" inquired the Captain.

"We are getting some of their radio broadcasts but…" said the communication officer as he flipped the switch on the control panel. At once a series of pops, hisses and what sounded like steam coming out of a tea pot came out of the speakers. "I am running it through the translator program but we could use some help. We don't really have a context for whatever they are saying."

"Solution?" inquired the Captain, she was a native of Lanagara but she was as much Tau'ri as everyone else and she was grateful that the soon to be vice president of the Tau'ri was from her world.

"Best solution is to get into their computer system, we can download everything and that would speed the whole process of translation up." Said the communication.

"Problem is they don't even have Wifi or anything like that on their ships. It is all hard-wired in." added tactical "Without that we can't remotely access their computer network with any real ease. So an actual hard interface would be needed."

"What are conditions like on the ships?" inquired the captain

"Hot, average temperature 28 degrees Celsius or 84 degrees Fahrenheit." reported the sensor officer, as the Captain took in both system of measurements. In the back of her mind she knew that was one of the issues still facing the Tau'ri most nations had used Celsius and the metric system for so long with only a handful of nations notably the US using Fahrenheit and their own measuring standard system. The Americans where still getting used to the new system and integrating everything takes time and would still be going on for a while into the future.

"We have a language in hisses and pops and a very warm climate." stated the Captain as she thought about it. "My bet is that we are dealing with some kind of reptilian race."

"Great, I hate lizards." said another one of her officers

"Either way, we need more information has the life sign detector to determine how many of them we are dealing with?" inquired the Captain.

"Not with any real detail, there are a few thousand for sure moving around the ship but judging from where all their power from their nuclear reactors are going they have a lot more in cryo-sleep." answered sensors.

"So we have gained some information but we need more." said tactical officer "We need to send in someone to get more information."

"Alright, send everything to Earth we will let them decide what we will do." stated the Captain as the three Akula class ships moved around and gathered information about the coming threat. The ships spread out, two to either side of the fleet with the third moving above the fleet. Using their engines, they were able to keep up with the fleet with some ease. All the while broadcasting their information back to Earth.

 **That information was sent straight into a large conference room under the Military command center, there a** n emergence meeting was underway. Multiple top-level military members, along with some scientist and researchers from other departments and members of the Tau'ri congress gathered for the meeting. If need be from here they had a direct link to home system command located deep underground outside of Istanbul and with the SGC located on the moon, from there more military and civilian advisors could be teleconferenced in. They also had links with the Presidential estate and other key locations however for the moment soon to be President Samantha Carter was sitting in the room with some of the highest ranking military personal in the world.

The room itself was rather simple with a large table, which was capable of projecting holograms which could be moved by hand. Multiple flat screen monitors some as large as a full-grown man covered the side walls allowing for either more displays to be put up or in this case teleconference with other high-ranking officers. All of them where currently dark since everyone who was really needed aside from the 1st fleet commander Admiral Harrison was already in the room. The fleet Admiral was onboard the flagship of the 1st fleet the battleship HMS Prince of Wales which was moving toward the Pluto defense line. Even so he could appear in the form of a hologram around the table.

"How could 500 plus ships moving so slow get so close to Earth?" inquired a member of the Senate

"The fact that they are moving so slow is why they were able to get so close." Said a Colonel in engineering. "The defense stations and long-range scanners are all designed to alert us to two main things, first ships traveling in hyperspace and other known forms of FTL and anything that is within a 50 thousand kilometers of the orbit of Pluto

"Still 500 ships?" inquired the Senator

"514." Corrected Intelligence

"Space is full of rocks and other natural bodies we can't track them all and if they aren't heading into the system or moving in an unnatural path the system doesn't alert the operator of them. It was only when these ships began to slow down that the system picked them up." Stated the Colonel

"How long until they enter our defense line range?" inquired Carter, she sat at the head of the table, with her soon to be Vice President Jonas Quinn beside her. She had been elected in a huge landside which wasn't even close, considering only a handful of other candidates ran against her none of them as famous as her. She won easy and now found herself in a position she didn't want but in a position where she would do the most good for the Tau'ri. "How they got so close can wait until we are clear of the threat."

"At the rate, they are going 3 days and it will take them another 45 days to Mars." stated the Colonel "They are moving very slowly by our standards."

"Recon?" inquired Carter as she turned toward a navy officer in the uniform which in the past would have marked him as being a submariner but now marked him as a member of the Akula stealth ships force.

"I have three Akula ships on the edge of their fleet, we are still gathering information but judging from what we have discovered so far, they are lightly armed at least on the outside and they are likely reptilian in nature." explained the Navy officer

"How do you know that?" inquired General Leong

"Judging from the temperature inside the ships which is very warm and the sound of hissing and pops on their radio broadcasts we believe that reptilian in nature is the most likely answer." answered the Navy officer, as General Leong nodded her head.

"Numbers of people we are dealing with?" inquired General Leong, the answer came from the head of the table.

"If they are moving that slow, they would need a cryo-sleep system to keep a large population alive, that would make it hard to figure out how many are actual there." advised Carter, she wasn't a true Politician. She had spent a lifetime in the military where she had become a hero to the people. When the people of the Tau'ri decided to have a true president elected by the people only two real options for the 1st president was possible, General O'Neill and General Carter. General O'Neill was up in age and had decided to retire from public life and was currently spend his days fishing and drinking beer outside his cabin. That left General Carter who didn't want the job but had taken up the role anyhow. "So this is likely one of three things, either it is a colonization fleet, a refugee fleet or a conquest fleet from a civilization that hasn't developed faster than light travel and don't have the Startgate. What weapons have we detected on the ships?"

"No shields, no energy weapons of any kind have been detected not even artificial gravity. The power source as far as we can tell comes from nuclear reactors and aside from some missile tubes we have spotted no clear sign of weapons." explained the Akula officer "However a nuclear tipped missile can still cause enough damage. We need more information is to get into their computer system and the only way to do that is to get on their ships."

"Can you do it without getting detected?" inquired soon to be Vice President Jonas Quinn "They are getting rather close to our system but I would rather not lose the element of surprise."

"We believe so, they haven't seam to detect our forces yet but we are moving ships into position to respond to any movement and with your permission madam president we will send alert orders to our other fleets and put our forces on Alert condition 4, with our outer defense stations on Alert condition 3. We also believe we know where they came from, a system about 7 hours away from us."

"What does the Asgard data core say about the system?" inquired another advisor

"Not much, only a general outline of the system. There was no stargate there either so we are almost totally blind about that system." explained the Navy officer.

"That will need to change, send an Akula class ship there to see what it is like. We have assumed that since the Asgard and Ancient data cores didn't mention a threat that there was none. We can't assume that anymore." stated Sam let out a breath and looked toward General Loeng. "I want plans drawn up to start a mapping operation of every system within our territory, We can't defend ourselves without us knowing what is out there. I also want official guidelines drawn up on how to make contact with space born civilization who have not developed faster than light travel or the Stargate."

"At once." Said a policy maker

"That may stress our fleet thin." Stated the Navy Admiral "But we can do it, how soon do you want it?"

"This is a long-term operation, we can't map every star system in 20% of the galaxy in a couple of days." explained Carter "No, start with the systems around Earth, Vahalla and Lanagara and work our way out from there. In fact why don't we see about talking with some of the other powers in the galaxy to see if they will allow us to map out their territory as well."

"Provided we give them the maps as well, most are likely to accept that." stated a high level diplomatic advisor.

"Alright, we will worry about that later." Said Carter "First we need more information on whatever is heading our way. General Leong, you are go on board the ship, no contact until we know what we are really dealing with."

"Yes, Ma'am." said General Leong

 **Far away from Earth, unaware of the situation going on back there, Colonel Jack O'Neill Jr, the Asgard clone of now retired General Jack O'Neill moved down a street with his rifle cradled in his hands.** He moved around the crowed market street with his eyes scanning the crowds for any sign of danger, he wasn't expecting any but he kept an eye out. The street themselves where as wide as any streets on fully colonized world under Tau'ri control, however this wasn't a fully colonized world. The official name of the world in Tau'ri records was TOP-1349 which didn't roll of the tongue, any better than the old name PX-1349.

Aside from the Tau'ri military base and a handful of civilian contractors the world wasn't officially colonized either. Each day traders from multiple worlds which were under Tau'ri space control but not actual control came to trade with each other in a neutral world. These planets where primitive by the Tau'ri standards with most of them at the level of medieval Europe or Asia but they all knew about the stargate. So instead of traders going to multiple different worlds trying to find a single market they came here along with the customers for their goods. Here they would buy, sell and trade in almost everything aside from a handful of items like slavery and other banned items. For the most part, everything was peaceful and people seamed grateful for the Tau'ri protection.

"Excuses me!" yelled a kid about 8 or 9 years old as he ran down the street. Jack studied the kid for a moment, thinking it could possibly be a thief but he quickly pushed that idea out of this mind. The kid wore something that looked like he belonged in a renaissance festival but he carried a bright neon blue backpack. Jack stepped aside as the kid ran down the street, as the school bell went off in the distance. The Tau'ri had set up a free school where children from every world could come and learn.

"I am late, I am late for a very important date." Laughed Jack to himself as he kept moving down the street. As he did he heard street venders call out to him wanting him to sell different things ranging from little gifts to strange food. Jack simply smiled at them and occasional stopped and talked with a shop owner to see if anything was wrong but other than that he kept moving on his patrol. He checked his watched and stopped in at a food vender and picked up something which was a cross between a Mexican and Chinese food. He paid with Tau'ri tender which was happily accepted here and carried on his patrol. Overall the Galaxy had become a very peaceful place at least for the Tau'ri, the Galaxy had seen what the Tau'ri had done to the Colonials and the other powers didn't really want to mess with them because of it.

 **They had gotten through the normal checkpoints with no issues, the guards watching over the checkpoints had checked their IDs and tickets to make sure they were who they said they were and that they had business at the space port.** With that done they moved into the port and headed toward the actual space part of the space port. The air/space port was set up in a Y shape, with one side hosting the normal airliners for travel on Libran itself. While the other side contained the larger ships capable of traveling between the stars.

"This is so cool." Said a young boy who was almost 5 years younger than his older sister who was sitting by the window waiting for the craft to be ready to take them on. The ship was painted blue and white and sat in a long narrow bay with multiple restraints holding it in place. The 15-year-old boy had been far too young to take part in the war outside of viewing it on TV and this his first trip off world and his excitement was showing.

"Yes, Nikias." said Acacia to her baby brother, their parents were sitting away from the window each of them engrossed in work. Her mother, Dr. Korina Drivas was working on another one of her Psychology book while her father, Professor Paulos Drivas was busy editing lessons for his Cylon War class at the university both worked at. Acacia rolled her eyes slightly, her parents where both professors and would work until the vacation started when they arrived at Aqauria.

Her best friend Medea was leaning against a nearby pole looking out at the port as well, however unlike the younger of the Drivas siblings they both noticed that there was a lot of empty spaces in the bay. They knew why as well, the Tau'ri had blown most of the colonial ships out of the sky or where they sat on land because the military had impressed all of them into military duty. Only a handful where not destroyed and they made up the backbone of the colonial civilian and cargo fleet, it wasn't a lot. The colonials where hard at work making more but the shipyards had been even a harder hit than Colonial Cargo fleet.

"Look at that." Said Nikias in wonder as he pointed toward a large black shape which was descending from the sky toward the runway. It was massive about the size of a battlestar but it floated through the sky with great ease before coming in for a landing in the nearby cargo area of the space port. From their vantage point they were able to watch as massive doors opened up on the top and bottom of the ship as large shipping containers marked with different colonial company logos where unloaded. There was a handful of Tau'ri companies as well but for the most part they were Colonial companies.

"That is a Hadrian class transport." answered Acacia as she recalled what Robert had said about them. "They are named after some ancient Tau'ri emperor."

"The Tau'ri are so cool." stated Nikias with a smile, Acacia smiled to herself. She had seen how after the war, most Colonials aside from Sagittaron and Gememon had accepted their current position in the galaxy. They were a backwater area deep inside Tau'ri space and the other powers didn't look favorable on them because of the attempted murder of a Nox diplomat and the claim that they had a right to rule over the entire galaxy. That meant that the colonials had no friends and none of the other powers had even contacted them. They were on their own, with the Cylons nearby and the Tau'ri over them. Luckily the Tau'ri seamed strangely willing to offer a helping hand up to the enemy they had just beaten senseless then anyone had expected when peace finally happened even so anger and bitterness remained.

"And without them now, most of us would be either starving or paying out of our ears for basic needs." stated her father Paulos as he turned his green eyes on his two children. "The Tau'ri did a number on us in the war, but I shouldn't have to tell you that. You and Medea both saw what they did on Tauron and we all saw what they did everywhere else. They may not be occupying us in the traditional sense but it is clear that they are the real power and our freedom is only really allowed under their approval."

Acacia raised an eyebrow at the comment but let it go, she had more important things to worry about.

"Colonial Heavy 798, from Kingstown Libran to Queenstown Aquaria will now begin boarding." Announced a voice over the load speaker as the Drivas family plus Medea who was family in all but name got in line and boarded the spaceship that would take them to Aquaria. Once in their seats, with Nikias having one of the window seats the ship took off with a roar, it lifted off the ground using its powerful engines to go almost vertical for a moment before moving into a path that would lead it up into space. They moved up and up through the clouds as Nikias looked out the window as the darkness of space replaced the blue of Libran.

"Alright ladies and Gentlemen, we are looking at a two-hour flight to Aquaria with two jumps we will alert you when they come until then we will be coming around to get drink orders." Said the pilot from the cockpit, Acacia and almost everyone else knew that the FTL onboard would be spinning up right now and because this was a civilian ship it lacked the range of a military FTL. Luckily Aquaria was in just the neighboring system, if they were heading to Virgon the time would be almost three times as long because of the distance between the two solar systems.

"Sis, Medea can I ask you two a few questions?" inquired Nikias

"Alright, what do you want us to pick up for you on our trip? We are going to Vahalla, that is Tau'ri" laughed Acacia as her brother's fifteen-year-old eyes grinned a bit. In the row behind them, her father glared a little at his daughter calling Kobol by the Tau'ri name of Vahalla instead of the Colonial one.

"I'll think about that, however my teacher assigned us some vacation homework and we have to interview three people about what they did during the war for our history class." explained Nikias as he pulled out a notebook from his bookbag. "Can I interview you two? That would mean I only have to find one more person."

"Sure, I don't see why not." Said Medea with a laugh. "We have some time to kill, which teacher?"

"Mrs. Frinzer." answered Nikias as both older woman nodded their heads.

"Oh, I remember all the fun I had with her." said Acacia before looking at Medea "I think you feel asleep in the middle of her lecture on the articles of Colonization and began drooling all over the desk."

"I think so." answered Medea with a laugh, it would take 33 minutes for their FTL to charge so they had to wait. "So go on, Nikias ask away."

 **It was a perfect day on Vantic 5, the weather couldn't have been better for the members of the Race who now called the world home.** It would have been a perfect spring day, with just enough coolness to make a male or female relax a bit but still warm enough to take in the heat. The race had ruled Vantic 5 for 74 local rotation or 148 years of the race. The colonization fleet had only been on the planet for about half as long only 74 years of the race. Like the race, the natives of Vantic had long lives, in fact a large population of the Vantic people where either teenagers or young adults when the fleet arrived where only now having children or their own. In the span of their lifetime everything had changed, they had gone from being masters of their own planet to subjects. They had to stand by and watch as their historic buildings where torn down by monstrous machines only to be replaced by large cube buildings which where uniformed in almost every way.

The sound of gunfire caused the males and females of the race in the shopping center parking lot to turn their eye turrets away from what they were doing and toward the direction the shot came from.

"Those foolish Vantic are at it again, don't they see we are improving their lives?" said a male as a Vantic moved behind him pushing shopping carts, his green insect like head lowered in shame.

"Is something wrong? Do you disagree with me, shopping center worker?" inquired the male as he turned an eye turret on the Vantic. The Vantic wore the simple body paint of a worker and like every member of the race he wore nothing else but body paint.

"No superior sir." said the Vantic, in the hissing pops of the language of the race. It was the only thing he could say. He had once been a blacksmith working at his forge but he had lost his forge, and his home above the shop he and his family had run for generations. He couldn't lose this job, he needed to provide for his family, something which confused their overlords who had no idea what family was or why it was important. To them friendship was everything and aside from the Emperor bloodlines and ancestors meant nothing. So he had swallowed his pride, took off his cloths and put on body paint which is what the race wanted and worked here pushing carts around for just enough to feed his family, the paid only enough for a single person to live on and since he was a Vantic not even the same that would have gone to a member of the Race.

He had to also change to fit into the role the Race wanted for him, wearing traditional clothing and practicing their faith was becoming harder and harder to do as the Race cracked down on it, they wanted everyone to be like them and worship their emperors past. What was worrisome was that some of the younger generation was slowly falling in line. He looked across the wide road where a temple had once stood to honor the God of the Fields and Harvest, now a motorized vehicle store sat.

"Good." said the male as the Vantic went back to pushing carts, he entered the shop to find some more of his kind at the register. He walked up behind on and whispered into his hearing hole in their own native language.

"The fight goes on." he whispered.

"The fight goes on." answered the cashier in their own language.

"Who is speaking that barbaric language!" yelled one of the nearby managers but like all the other Vantic workers no one spoke up and in a sign of strength. "Very well, I will dock all your pay by two tenth of an hour, unless one of you speaks up."

"It was I superior sir." said the former blacksmith, as he bent down in a sign of weakness even though he wanted to spring on the tiny scale covered invader and rip his head off. "I was reporting about the gunshot outside and I didn't want to scare any customer."

"I see…" said the manager, considering the lie. "Very well, I will let it go this time but next time I will write you up."

"Thank you, superior sir." said the former Blacksmith as the male moved off and the Vantic went back to the break room to have his lunch and cursed out his boss and all the occupiers in his native language.

 **Responding to the call of gunfire was not the police force of the Race but armed and ready combat males.** In almost every point in the history of the race aside from when they went out on conquest the Race had no soldiers, even their police for the most part went unarmed aside from a baton with maybe a handgun for emergency response teams. Here even the police where armed which was worry some to the average males and females but it was clear that it still needed.

A female of the race was down with a large caliber wound, one of the Vantic's primitives guns had hit her in the shoulder. While the weapon was primitive by comparison to the weapon in the claws of small unit commander Wuppah or the other males under his command. He poked an eye turret around the bulldozer he was using as cover and looked at where the shot had come from. A large group of native Vantic homes which were supposed to be torn down today to make way for the clean crisp organized streets and buildings of any city within the empire. Another shot rang out as the bullet slammed into the dirt only a few body lengths away from him. He had seen where the shot had come from. He spun into the open and fired his assault rifle into the window where the shot had come from. Only to have a second shooter open on him from a different window.

"We got a terrorist cell on our claws." hissed Wuppah before getting on his radio, all around him the males under his command where taking cover. In a perfect world, he would order the advance however he needed to protect the male and female construction workers who were under attack from the terrorist in the homes they were supposed to be bulldozed. The native Vantic's who were also working as unskilled labor where also under his protection but his main goal was to protect the Race not them. In fact he kept an eye turret on them in case they were terrorist themselves.

"Foolish primitives, don't they know that the Emperor in all his wisdom will provide them new homes better then what they have now." said a male under his command, quickly casting his eye down at the name of his distance sovereign. Wuppah didn't have time to respond as the sound of a flight of three attack helicopters crossed his hearing difram. The three flying death machines formed a straight line toward the group of houses where the terrorist was located. Then they began to spit fire into the buildings, both machine gun bullets and rocket fire turned the homes and shops into wreckage and any terrorist inside it as well. Then to make even more wreckage a pair of jet powered killer craft came over and dropped a couple of guided missiles from high above turning the entire area into a mass of twisted stone and dried mud. Pots, pans and other household items including the cloth wrappings wore by the natives could be seen in the mess along with a few natives themselves lying dead in what had once been their homes.

"That is what you get for protecting terrorists. Move forward, clear out anyone who doesn't walk on two legs." stated Wuppah as his males moved forward leaving the job of watching over the civilians to the police officer. A medical transport quickly arrived to get the wounded female to a hospital and treatment it was once again a victory for the Race and a defeat to the Vantic freedom terrorists.

 **Unaware of any of the issues going on outside of Pluto, former Colonel in the Colonial Navy and actual humanoid Cylons turned prisoner in all but name of the Tau'ri Saul Tigh, sat at a beach side bar on the large island of Hawaii.** He could look out over the pure white sandy beach with all the women walking around in skimpy swimsuits all day long while drinking anything he wanted from the bars. All his expresses where being picked up by the Tau'ri, it was a golden prison but he was still a prisoner. He was followed everywhere he went by a team of Tau'ri watchers and they had embedded a tracking device into the back of his neck. He knew why they had done such a thing, they had promised the humanoid Cylons that they would keep him and the other originally humanoid Cylons called the final five Galen Tyrol here on Earth and away from the Colonies. Saul was more than happy to stay in his cage, overall the Tau'ri where not bad and they weren't trying to get any information out of him and they could have sent him and Galen to some place a lot worse.

"This is CNN breaking news." said the TV over the bar which had become one of Saul's personal favorites. "The Nox have just handed down the sentences for Vice President of the 12 colonies Spiro and his brother Priest Spiro for their actions during the Tau'ri Colonial War. For taking part in the order to prepare a biological warfare strike on Valhalla Vice President Spiro has been sentenced to 75 years to life in a prison on Mars. His brother Priest Spiro was sentenced to 50 years to life for crimes against intelligent life for his tortured of none believers in the faith of the Lords of Kobol on Sagittarian. He will be sent to a prison on Lanagara to serve his term. No official comment yet from the President of the 12 colonies of Kobol."

"They would have sent them to Kobol but that is what they would have wanted." laughed Saul into his whiskey. "Not that it will matter both Spiro brothers are older than me, well older then this body of mine. They will die before they even reach their 1st chance of patrol."

"As our viewers may know former President Richard Adar of the 12 colonies of Kobol took a plea deal and is currently severing 50 to 75 years for his dual roles in the ordering the fleet to Valhalla which started the war and his attempted biological warfare. Part of the agreement was that he would serve in a middle level prison and after 35 years be transferred to a prison within the 12 colonies to serve the rest of his term."

Saul was about to turn back to his drink when the news changed once again to show images coming out of the 12 colonies. They showed Tau'ri soldiers on Sagittaron pulling forcing some children into their version of a Raptor transport. He shook his head at the image, Sagittaron was going to be a pain in the fraken ass for the Tau'ri. Then again it was a pain for all the other colonies as well, the only real good thing he could tell from the news about what the Tau'ri where doing in the 12 colonies was that aside from Sagittaron they weren't really enforcing their will on anyone. The other worlds seemed to have accepted that they lost and they had to follow the Tau'ri rules about freedom of religion even if they didn't care for it all that much. For their part, the Tau'ri didn't do anything to really offend the rest of the colonies.

"Imagine what could have been if we had just agreed that the Tau'ri where their own power and we didn't go after Kobol." Complained Saul as the image changed to show Vice President Baltar and a beautiful blonde hair woman. He knew that the woman wasn't Dr. Jenny Oldstone, no she was in fact a humanoid Cylon model six and she was on path to become wife to the Vice President of the Colonies and a major political power player on her own. "I wonder if Baltar knows who he is sleeping with or is just enjoying the sex."

"Another round Saul?" inquired the bartender

"Of course, Walter." Said Saul as the bartender poured him yet another drink. He lifted the glass up. "To golden prisons."

 **It appeared in a tiny flash of bright light which was even brighter in the darkness of the huge cargo hold in the heart of one of the large ships in the unknown fleet.** When the light faded darkness returned to cargo hold only there was something else in the hold, it wasn't an actual person it was instead a small drone. It was the size of a small kid's dinner plate and shaped with four small rotating blades for movement in the air. Since it was flying in a zero-gravity field it was allowed it to be highly mobile. It was loaded with multiple high-tech sensors and intelligence gathering tools. The images that it broadcast where sent straight back to the Akula class ship which had launched the drone.

"I don't think this is a refugee fleet." said one of the drone operators as the images of row after row of tanks sitting in cargo holds, other weapons were also clearly visible.

"Or it is the most heavily refugees I have ever heard of." Added another operator as the drone took off through the darkness. With its highly advanced sensors it saw in the darkness just as well as in the day, it scanned the tanks sitting in their bays and began to get early tactical information as it passed over them. They flew over APCs as well and large cargo areas that must store other needed supplies for the vehicles but where currently stored away. Finally, the drone reached the end of the cargo area and found the door, that is where it found its target a computer terminal built into one of the walls. It dropped down from the ceiling toward the sleeping computer terminal and scanned it to find an access port.

"You have got to be kidding me, it has interface ports only a CD drive slot." stated the operator as he cursed to himself. It was going to be much harder, as the drone lowered itself down from the screen height which was much too low for anyone over the age of 13 to use with ease to the base of the terminal. There was an access cover that led into the heart of the computer, with a few quick movements two tinny thing robotic arms extended from the base of the drone and went to work. Within moments the bolt covers where off exposing the wires and other hardware inside the terminal. Using the same hands, the drone physically attached itself to the computer.

"Alright." Said the operator as the interface with the computer system began to take hold.

"I have something on life detector heading our way." said the second operator.

"You have got to be kidding me." cursed the first, instead of detaching and flying away the drone flew into the free space inside the computer and using its second arm lifted the access port back up and into position holding it from the inside. With that done the drone turned off its blades to hide any noise but as it did it armed a stun round. It was hard to see what came into the cargo area through the ventilation slits in the access port but the camera did pick up some things. The lights in the cargo ships turned on bathing everything in bright harsh light.

It was covered with scales and had claws on its feet, wore no shoes of any kind and while the drone couldn't see anything above the waist line it didn't appear to have any cloths on at all. A short tail was visible as well but the drone wasn't getting enough information. The sound of hissing and pops filled the air as the creature spoke. ,

"Hold on, I'll send in another drone." said the second officer as another as a second drone appeared in the far corner of the cargo room, since the lights where on the bright light wasn't noticeable. The second drone didn't fly inside it attached itself to the ceiling, using photo sensors it's surface covered blended into the ceiling color making it almost totally invisible to the naked eye but it was in position to see almost the entire room.

With the second drone the Tau'ri got their first good view of the alien which had moved away from the computer terminal and toward the first in the line of tanks. It was short much shorter than a full-grown human, the height of the creature was only a hair above 5 foot or 1.51 meters. It was covered with scales and had turreted eyes one of which was looking down at a clip board while the other eye was looking over the tank. It floated around the tank before checking off something on the clipboard, multiple colored stripes where visible on the alien.

"He really does look like a lizard." said the drone operator. "Maybe it is a woman for all we know."

"Who really knows for sure." said the second officer as they waited for the alien to move down the line of vehicles before the 1st drone went back to work, the computer screen never turned on but it did make a slight noise as the hard drive began to spin. With that the download began and the Tau'ri gained access to the computer network. Using the drones own broadcaster it began to send the data dump to the Akulas who in return sent it to the Earth.

 **The first thing the Tau'ri officer did was run a translator program.** The drones themselves would wait until the alien was at the far end of the cargo bay before the 2nd one flew down and sealed the 1st one inside the that done the second drone went back to the ceiling and monitoring the bay while the 1st keep up with the task of downloading the information.

It came up on two separate computer screens, one in the language of the Alien race the other in German. When the Tau'ri formed it became law that all school age children had to learn at least 2 of the 5-official language of the Tau'ri with military personal having to know 3, it was now common for most schools to offer all 5 plus their native country language and some nations like Japan had made it a requirement to graduate school to know 3 of the 5 plus Japanese. Those language where, English, German, Spanish, Mandarin Chinese and Arabic.

"What do you have?" inquired the officer in command

"Sir, if I am reading this right this is a Conquest fleet." reported the operator

"As we feared when we saw the tanks." Stated the commanding officer.

"Sir, this is the strange thing they have recon photos of their target Earth or Tosev 3 as they call it." Said the operator as he pulled up the image of what looked to be a crusader knight in full armor. "This is the most up to date information they have on Earth."

"You have got to be kidding me." said the intelligence officer as he looked at the line of images, he was looking at clearly photos of life on Earth almost 900 years ago. "This is their latest information they have on us?"

"Yes." Said the technical "Even our current radio broadcasts are too advanced for them to understand, they think it is some kind of solar activity."

"Didn't they pick up our broadcasts from before we introduced the stargate?" inquired the officer

"Sir, looks like they had most of their sensors off while they traveled and they had a radio lock on this world here." said the analyst "I would imagine that is their home world. They didn't pick ours up and they passed them by without notice, same goes for all our broadcasts."

"Alright, I'll send this all to high command but we need to get as much data as possible." ordered the Officer "Keep up the work."

"Will do sir." Confirmed the officer.

 **It took only an hour but the first reports began to reach the large meeting of military and political leaders in the heart of the Tau'ri Capital.** All of them had access to the same report which caused a few of them to raise an eyebrow at the report.

"A reptilian race, called the Race?" inquired a Senator "They actually call themselves the Race? Kind of full of themselves to do that."

"They do indeed, they call their home world Home as well." added the intelligence expert a former member of the Israeli intelligence services until it like all the others had been folded into a single large intelligence agency responsible for the entire galaxy. "From the basic information, we have gathered and gone through so far, they have 4 worlds under their control with three separate races and we are their next target."

"Well they are going to fail at that." Stated General Leong, she had gone straight to the military breakdown of the enemy, most of all their armor. She had gone up in the ranks as an armored warrior and knew the breakdown of multiple different tanks from around the world along now with the main weapons of the Tau'ri and the Colonial army. "If I was to place this tank and other equipment aside from the space ships, I would put it in the late 70's early 80's tech range. Our own ground weapons would beat them senseless, even the Colonial weapons where more advanced then these where on the ground."

"We agree and from what we gathered they believe they would have a cake walk here." Said the intelligence officer as he pulled up the image of a medieval Knight. "This is the enemy they are expecting to fight."

"My God, they are really failing in the field of recon if they think that is what they will go up against." said an Admiral

"They must not advance that fast themselves." said President Elect Carter as she took command of the meeting. "We have meet races and civilization on our travel which have advanced very slowly compared to us. I image these are the same and they assumed that all civilization is like them."

"That is what we believe." Confirmed the Intelligence officer "We are sending Akulas class ships to each of the 4 worlds under their control to get more information. They recently conquered a race on a world they call Vantic 5."

"How recently conquered?" inquired a General

"By our years 74." explained the Intelligence officer "That was when they were conquered but they follow up with a colonization fleet that was about 40 years ago. They have been getting updates saying that terrorist attacks have kept going on."

"Which raises an issue, if we make contact with the Vantic people do we help them win back their world." Said the General

"We are getting ahead of ourselves." Stated Vice President elect Jonas Quinn "We need to make contact with the fleet heading toward us."

"With your permission, if you are going to contact them I advise you hold off on contact with them for about 6 hours." Said the intelligence officer "It is the middle of the night on their ships and we want their commanders on the bridge and fully awake when we make contact. We don't want some young officer shooting first out of fear."

"Yes." confirmed Carter as she looked down at the holographic map which covered a lot of the table. She tapped in a few commands and the fleet of the Race jumped to their likely location of their fleet in 6 hours. It was still outside the max range of the defense stations but that was ok. "Alright, when they reach this line we will make first contact."

"How do we want to do it?" inquired General Leong as the discussion began about how they were going to make contact with this race. When they agreed the meeting broke up as the leaders went to get some rest while they waited for the oncoming fleet to move into the position they wanted. The Race still had no idea what they were walking into and shortly they would learn just how wrong they were.

 **Well I hope you enjoyed this chapter, I would like to thank everyone who reviewed and I ask that you keep reading. Also if you are reading from the USA, have a fun and safe 4** **th** **of July. Thanks Wilkins75.**


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4 Contact**

Former General of Stargate Command and former member of SG-1, Samantha Carter sat in her soon to be official Presidential office. It was over the top for her likely but so was so much of everything in the Presidential Mansion which was soon to be her home for the next 6 years likely 12 years if she won a second six-year term as President. She looked around at the office, it was shaped in a rectangle however one end of the office near where her hand carved new desk was oval with large windows that overlooked one of the grand avenues. From where she stood she could look over the large grassy area where trees where already growing from and down the avenue to the half-finished Tau'ri Congress building. She let out a breath and looked out over the glowing lights of the half-finished city ship which would serve as the Capital of the Tau'ri.

"This is an interesting turn." added her old friend and like her a former member of SG1 Dr. Daniel Jackson. The former laughing stock in all fields of higher learning was now the head of the University which bore his name in the heart of the Capital. He had professors and experts from the best universities from around Earth and Lanagara all under him. People who had headed whole departments in places like Oxford, Harvard, Kyoto University and others renewed places of higher learning where now simple professors at what was being built to be the very best in Tau'ri education. All of them now worked under Daniel who like Carter was trying to get used to his new position.

"I have had some of the people in the Physiology department look over some of the data you got from the Race's ships and they gave me some information that could prove useful to you." Said Daniel as he took a drink on his beer.

"And what is that?" inquired soon to be Vice President Jonas Quinn as he sat across from his friend with a low table between them All around them where multiple reports both in paper form and on computer pad.

"That this may be some slight trouble for us." expressed Daniel

"General Leong doesn't think so, military wise they are laughable behind us." countered Carter as she stood with her hands behind her back. "And I would have to agree with her, their technology aside from their space travel capabilities seems to be about the level of the early 90s with their military technology over a decade behind that. Even their space travel technology doesn't seem that advanced, they are only pushing out particles. By my own math Project Orion would have done a better job for us and we gave up in the 1960s."

"Project Orion?" inquired Jonas Quinn looking at Carter and at Daniel who had no real clue about it either.

"It was a project NASA had for a while to propel a space ship by setting off a nuclear explosion behind it and catching some of the force to move the ship forward through space." Explained Carter "Not a bad idea actually but compared to what we have now it is laughable slow."

"That may be true but the issue is not technological it is cultural." explained Daniel "The Professors at the University have looked over some of the data and have come to a rather interesting conclusion."

"Which is?" inquired Carter

"That the Race is self-centered." answered Daniel "Think about it, they call themselves the Race and their home world Home. They have built the universe around themselves being at the center of it."

"So did the Colonials." countered Carter, "They thought we would be under their control."

"But they knew Earth was out there, here they think they are at the peak of nature that they are the best and only truly cultured race in the Galaxy. They will not take it well to find out just how low they really are when it comes to power." stated Daniel

"It does make some sense, but how will they react to that?" inquired Jonas

"Not well." answered Daniel "Not well at all. We also have to take into account that as far as we have been able to see through the limited translations of their history. It seems that the only and I mean only form of Government they have ever seen is based around an absolute God Emperor. They will not process our form of government well, they will think we are a bunch of crazy fools."

"And the whole knight thing?" inquired Carter "I assume that is because they advance slowly like some of the other worlds we have come across."

"That is a likely answer, their dating system is weird because it goes of years of an Emperor rule on top of a standard yearly calendar." explained Daniel "But going off what we think is photos from before they left home and from the time they got the probe with our information on it. There was no visible change. That would be about 900 years to us or 1800 to them."

"They must move extremely slow." stated Jonas

"Like a glacier." added Carter as she processed the information. "Alright, so we have to take our time with them because they will not process the rate we move well."

"If at all." added Daniel "When will you get ships to the other worlds they rule? If we get a better picture of them then we will be better able to make then see just how outmatched they are."

"We are sending Akulas ships in first to scout, however the 1st fleet here around Earth only has three of them and they are all monitoring the oncoming fleet. The 7th Fleet is moving into a support position and sending their Akulas to the four worlds in question, we should have actually had contact a while ago but the fleet was near Lanagara." Explained Carter, she knew that Daniel didn't have clearance for that kind of information. He was no longer employed by Stargate Command which had been handed off to now General Cameron Mitchell. No one would have been surprised that he knew or say anything about the fact that he knew. It was an open secret that while not an official member of the Government anymore outside of being the head of a university that he was a top advisor equal to if not more influence than some of the Cabinet appointments. She checked her watch "Should take about another 5 hours, for the 1st Akula to get into position to gather information about their worlds, their home world I believe."

"Well one good thing has already happened from all of this." Said Daniel as Carter and Jonas looked at him slightly confused. "The history department is drooling over the images that the race had from their drone took in our past. We actually have images not only from the 1st crusade in Europe and the middle east like the siege of Antioch but how people lived across the world."

"Well that is something." Said Carter as she turned back to the issue of what to do about the oncoming fleet.

 **Colonial Heavy 786 appeared in a flash of light outside of the orbit of Aquaria, that is when the Drivas family saw that the former ice ball of a world had become thick with greens and deep rich blues**. They ice which had once been the most dominate feature of Aquaira was now only up in the far north and the far south. They could see the rich greens of forests and grasslands, then they saw it. Over Aquaira was a large space station, from one view it looked like a long spire shooting through a thicker oval center area with a large arm shooting out of the center area. It was clear that it was Tau'ri in nature and was likely powerful enough on it's own to take on the entire colonial navy if they came after it however it wasn't alone. A massive black shape could be seen against the deep blue of the oceans of Aquaria. It was shaped like a sword with the hilt filled in. The running lights highlighted some parts of the ship, then a couple of Tau'ri space fighters, Eagles came into view. They stayed some distance away from the Colonial liner but they where visable none the less.

"That is a Tau'ri battleship and their version of Vipers." Said Nikias as the 15 year old looked out of the window transfixed as more Tau'ri warships came into view. These where not battleships but smaller cruisers and destoryers and the massive Hadrian class transport ships. The Hadriean class ships where the ones moving to and from the planet the other ships seamed to be in orbital protection station.

"Eagles they are called Eagle fighters and I believe the larger ships are Daedalus class Cruisers and the smaller ones are Galahad class Destroyers." Answered Adrea as the Colonial transport moved past the Tau'ri battleship and other ships as it entered the atmosphere. They looked down at best they could, the air/space port was near to the Tau'ri military base and from their current location they could see multiple Tau'ri space craft, their dark shapes standing out on the runways, the large hangers likely protected other things from view. They could even make out Tau'ri vechicals moving around including their tanks which was rolling toward whatever destination they wanted to go to.

"This is so amazing, my friends will near believe some of this stuff." Said Nikias as the liner's engines fired and it moved into the docking area.

"Right on time." Said Medea with a smile as she strained her head to look in through the window attempting to see through her window in an attempt to see who was waiting in the terminal. She thought she could see Robert already sitting there but his head was down so it hard to know for sure.

 **Only a few yards away Captain Robert Lefeld sat in the air/space port terminal waiting for the arrival of Colonial Heavy 786 from Libran.** His carry on bag was beside him and his other bags was already across the field where the modified civilian Condor would be transporting him, Acacia and Medea to Valhalla.

"I wish I could take the stargate." Complained Robert to himself, however the stargate on Aquaira was used only for military reasons and it's location was a highly guarded secret. He like every other Tau'ri stationed here had to use a condor to get back to Valhalla. Then his thoughts changed as his wrist and four-arm mounted computer/video phone which was common now by all Tau'ri beeped, he checked it and saw that he had two emails. One was confirmation that he was no longer on call up in case of action, he was now officially on leave. The other one was a response to an inquest and he took his time reading the message. He was just finishing when he noticed the arrival of the colonial transport at the terminal. He stood up and double checked his outfit, he had taken off his work uniform and instead had gone with a simple black polo shirt with a tiny embroidered of the screaming eagle of the 101st on it and blue jeans. His jacket was simple as well, just a deep grey and nature and his bag was none military as well, he threw the jacket back on making sure it covered the wrist computer/phone. Then he braced himself as passengers began to get off.

He saw her father first he knew only from photos, a tall man not as tall as Robert himself but not by much, he looked as if he was a scholar but a scholar who had been an fighter in youth and a strong on at that. He was maybe in his late 40's with some of the dark red hair starting to show grey in it. Her mother was the next one he saw, she had given her daughter the same bright red hair and green eyes however she was shorter then Acacia and wore glasses and looked like she belonged behind a lector at a university and considering she was a professor that was understandable. The little brother had more of his father dark red hair but had the green eyes of his mother. Acacia and Medea were the last off the transport.

"And here we go." whispered Robert to himself as he moved forward with a smile on his face, he could feel both of Acacia's parents eyes on him almost at once. As Acacai moved to his side and guided him toward her family.

"Mom, Dad this is Robert Lefeld." Said Acacia as Robert as he offered his hand to her father.

"Pr. Divas, Dr. Drivas." Said Robert as the father eyed him for a moment before taking his hand.

"Well, it is good to finally meet our daughter's boyfriend." said Mr. Drivas with a smile "I am only sorry it was so long, but you are on this world and we are on Libran."

"Yes, that is an issue." Said Mrs. Drivas as she studied her husband and Robert with the eyes of someone watching an experiment, waiting to see what the results was going to be.

"Well it can't be helped and I talk to Acacia whenever I can and go to Libran whenever possible it is just our scheduled hasn't worked out well." Said Robert "However that is about to change we have a long vacation planned, we have a few hours before our flight why don't I treat you to something to eat."

"That would be amazing, can we eat somewhere Tau'ri?" asked Nikias as he looked around the armed Tau'ri walking around the terminal with wide eyed amazement. Here inside the airport the Tau'ri and the local civilian police where basically one in the same. Since this was the only spaceport in any of the colonies where Tau'ri hyper drive equipped civilian space liners where located they where guarded and by extent the rest of the terminals. Not that it was really that had, on Aquaria where the refugees from the religious camps of Sagittarian and the those who believed in other religions then the Lords of Kobol was welcomed the Tau'ri where nothing short of beloved by them. The issue came with visitors and the immigration of people from other colonies to the world which was now the equal in climate to Caprica. A couple of Tau'ri soldiers walked by in their full battle armor including power suits and full visor helmets. Their weapons where strapped to their backs, Robert knew this was a light duty assignment but it was more fun then dealing with guard post duty outside of the base.

"I have never been this close to Tau'ri before." Added Nikias as he stood beside Robert who chuckled a bit to himself.

"Well, there is a place called Texas Roadhouse where we can all enjoy a sit down meal." Answered Robert as he lead the Drivas family and Medea through the crowds and down into the main lobby area then to the food court where multiple quick Servius and full sitting restaurants where there as well most of them Tau'ri in nature. It wasn't that the Colonials didn't have their own local food it was that the demand for Tau'ri food like everything else was high and some would fly in to Aquaria just to try Tau'ri food which was something new.

They got a table quickly as the waiter moved around and got their orders, Nikias was in utter amazement at all the strange and new items on the wall and on the menu. The menu had two prices, colonial cubit and Tau'ri dollars on it. Everything costed less with the Tau'ri dollar but that was because the Tau'ri dollar was worth over three times the amount of a Colonial Cubit at the moment.

"I'll try this…bud light." said Mr. Drivas as he looked at menu "Don't worry I'll pay for myself and you as well."

"Please sir, allow me it isn't that big of a deal." Said Robert as he placed his order, everyone went around and ordered their meal. The waiter wasn't Tau'ri and neither was almost everyone in the room, only the atmosphere and the food was Tau'ri. There was a nearby TV which was showing the news and one of the top stories was the raid carried out a few hours ago by Tau'ri forces on Sagittarian to take back images. The camera zoomed in on Robert and Drugov, thanks to their power armor and body armor along with the full visor helmet which was darkened it was next to impossible to tell who it was. Robert could make out the 101st airborne patch on his arm and the Tau'ri flag above the American one and he knew it was him.

"The Tau'ri are fraken fools." Said Mr. Drivas with a shake of his head "The Sagittarians will throw a fit about that and enforcing the religious rules on them, better to just let them handle their own. If you let them do that they tend to keep to themselves and let everyone else go on their own way."

"Dad." Said Acacia before Robert could say anything.

"Right sorry not the time and place so you two…." said Mr. Drivas with a smile as he looked at Robert and his daughter. "You two have been going steady for a while now."

"Yes, Sir." said Robert

"Please, relax I am not going to bite you but now I finally get to grill you for information." Said Mr. Drivas with a chuckle "My daughter has been light on information and by wife has been even lighter. So lets start with some basic information how old are you, I can tell you are older then my daughter but not by much."

"I will turn 24 in a few months." answered Robert as Mr. Drivas nodded his head in approval, Acacia was 20 herself and less then four years difference was totally fine in his eyes. Little did Acacia parents know that in some ways, Robert was younger then their daughter but she like all the Colonials had been in a time lock for almost 4 years while the Tau'ri built up strength to invade.

"See, dear I told you not to worry there are five years between us." Said Mrs. Drivas as she studied her husband and her daughter's boyfriend like the published physiologist she was.

"I understand you are in the military still, kind of amazing considering the amount of people being forced out by the new government in Caprica City, so how did you two meet I assume it was on the battlefield?" inquired Mr. Drivas as both Robert, Acacia and Medea blinked and looked at him in confusion which confused Mr. Drivas as well.

"Ah…" started Robert "I meet your daughter in the battle of Lezbha, my unit was part of the battle."

"Wait…wait, you where fighting in Lezbha too? Perfect!" said Nikias as he pulled out his notebook. "My teacher is making us right a report about three interviews we had with veterans of the Tau'ri Colonial War. I have my sister and Medea, can I interview you?"

"Nikias this isn't the time or the place…" started Acacia only to have Robert laugh.

"How about I answer some of your parent's questions and then I will answer any questions you have." said Robert as Nikias nodded his head resigned before going back to studying the Tau'ri restaurant he was now in. "I understand you two are Professors?"

"Yes, I am a leader in the field of Physiology and my husband is an expert in colonial Military history most of all the Cylon War." explained Mrs. Drivas "What do your parents do?"

"Well, my mom is a teacher and my dad is computer technician." Explained Robert with a smile. "Sorry, neither of them is a highly educated as you two, I am taking college classes part time through my post but Acacia will have her degree before me."

"Yes, but you are in the military and considering how much the our own government have done to make our military as weak as possible, I find it amazing that you can afford a trip to Kobol, the costs must be off the charts." said Mr. Drivas as both Acacia, Robert and Medea all looked at him confused for a moment. He didn't seam to know that Robert was Tau'ri. "I personally can't wait to rent a ship here, I heard the sailing weather is amazing now that it isn't so cold. I guess that is something to be thankful for the Tau'ri for."

"It is." confirmed Robert "I come from a sailing family in fact, all my uncles, grandfather and father all own either motor boats or sailing boats. I basically grew up on ships, it kind of surprised my family when I went army not navy."

"Really you like to sail?" inquired Mr. Drivas with a huge smile on his face. "Maybe we can go out sailing sometime. Maybe do some fishing?"

"I would like that." confirmed Robert as the waiter brought their food. It was then that two Tau'ri soldiers both in their work uniforms came into the establishment both of them from Robert's own command.

"Shit." Cursed Robert under his breath so that only Acacia could hear him, he hoped they wouldn't notice him but they did. As they passed both of them stopped and snapped to attention and saluted him.

"Sir." said both of them as Robert saluted them back in return. When they passed he let out a sigh before looking at Mr. Dravis and Nikos, their reactions couldn't have been more different. Pr. Davis as glaring at him as if he had just done the most horrible thing imaginable while little Nikias eyes where wide as if Robert had just walked over water.

"Yes, I am Tau'ri." said Robert answering the question before it could be asked, it only caused another question.

"If you are Tau'ri then how could you have met my daughter." Countered Mr. Drivas before turning to look at his daughter. "You said you met him on the battlefield of Lezbha."

"And I did, I told mom the story I assumed she told you." Said Acacia as her father turned to glare at his wife.

"I knew your feelings about the Tau'ri and I thought it better for you to meet the man first hand without having your views colored by the fact that he is Tau'ri." Explained Mrs. Drivas

"As for how we meet, that is kind of funny, we where trading shots at each other from across a road just on the outskirts of the city. We had pushed the colonial army back all day in a full retreat. I was in one house and your daughter and Medea along with other colonial army units where in another house. They managed to disable a Leopard main battle tank and in response an airstrike was ordered. A dive bomber dropped a bomb on the house they where in and when it exploded we advanced." Said Lefeld as he remembered running though the thick smoke of battle. "I climbed a mound of rubble and Acacia was lying on the ground at first I thought she was dead then she rolled over and looked up, then she started crawling away. I moved forward with my weapon on her, if she had pulled a weapon I would have pulled the trigger instead I got to her and put my foot down on her back and my rifle to the back of her head."

"By the Lords of Kobol." Said Mr. Drivas before pointing at Robert with anger and defiance in his voice. "And your dating him!"

"Yes." confirmed Acacia with the same anger and defiance in her voice that was in her father. "He didn't know me then and he didn't kill me or Medea, he could have instead he restrained me and called for medical add for Medea. Later he showed a lot of kindness and gentleness to me, we started dating from there, why shouldn't I love him?"

For a moment father and daughter glared at each other from across the table, the Medea broke the tension.

"I find it kind of funny, also kind of romantic in a movie sort of way. Two star crossed lovers fighting for different armies, I could almost see a movie out of it." added Medea before turning to look at her best friend since elementary school. Acacia was more like a sister then a best friend and considering both of her parents had died in a car crash when she was 16 she had all but been assimilated into the Drivas family. "Just when or if you two get married and have kids, I would wait until they are older to tell them how their parents met. Kind of hard to explain to a little child that Daddy put a gun to mommy's head."

That caused both Robert and Acacia to blush as Medea laughed.

"By the Lords of Kobol, your Tau'ri." Exclaimed Nikias "I can't wait to tell my friends I met not only a Tau'ri but a Tau'ri soldier who is actually dating my sister."

"Also imagine what your teacher will do if you bring in a report with the point of view of a Tau'ri solider on it." Added Medea as the Nikias eyes widened even more.

"I'll get top marks for sure." Said Nikias as an idea came into his head. "Our school is having a multiple guests speakers come in to talk about their experience with the war. Maybe you can come, it will make my friends so envious. I could become the most popular kid in school once people know that I know a Tau'ri."

"When is it, I will have to clear it with my commander." said Robert as he thought about it the public relation officer would love the idea of helping smooth over hard feelings from the war.

"You kids shouldn't look up to the Tau'ri they are the ones who beat us." countered Mr. Drivas with some annoyance at his son and the upcoming generations view of Tau'ri. "They didn't fight with honor in a fair fight."

"Do you think we wanted the war?" Inquired Robert deciding not to address the who different in tactics aside. "I was there when the nuclear blast went off by Celin, I pulled scared children from wretched, I was one of those raised our flag once again after the blast, I was one who pulled dead bodies out of rubble. One of them I will always remember a mother was shielding her child. The bodies where so badly burned from the blast, I couldn't even tell you if the child was a boy or girl. Do you think we would have taken that lying down? Would you have?"

"There was better solutions, 75 million people died." Stated Mr. Drivas

"How, we gave your government ever chance to end the fighting and only once you where beaten did you call uncle." said Robert "It was your government who didn't want to accept that the Tau'ri people where not under their control and wanted us to give up a world for nothing."

"There is no point hashing this out here, the war is over and now we have to get on with our lives." Stated Acacia as she looked both at her father and her boyfriend.

"So your going to this place, Disney right tell me about it." Said Mrs. Drivas as Acacia's mom decided to get them on a different subject. It was an strained dinner for sure, Nikias was going after every piece of information he could get about the Tau'ri from Robert, the young boy almost jumped out of his seat in joy when Robert gave him a 101st airborne patch. While Acacia's father tried to keep his anger from showing. Finally, the group parted with Acacia's family leaving the airport to go on their vacation around Aquaria while Robert, Acacia and Medea moved to the other side of the airport to the terminal where the civilian condors where.

 **The process of actually getting onto the Condor was much easier than the colonials had thought.** Their bags where checked and they had to give IDs and visas papers but aside from the travel visas Robert had to do the same thing. His Tau'ri Military ID did give him and the other Tau'ri on the flight perks that the Colonials didn't have but it wasn't much and it came at the end. The final part of the boarding was that each of them had to look into this strange device and answer some yes or no questions. The Questions mostly focused of confirming your ID and if you had any plans or know of any plans that might cause harm on Valhalla. The Colonials had to answer two additional questions about if they intended to carry out missionary work to spread the Faith of the Lords of Kobol on Valhalla and if they where spies attempting to gather information. A man in front of Robert answered no to the 1st question and the machine said he was lying. When pressed he admitted that he was traveling to carry out missionary work to save the souls of the 13th tribe since part of the peace treaty that ended the war forbade Colonial Missionaries on Tau'ri worlds just like Tau'ri faith missionaries couldn't go to the 12 Colonies he was removed.

When the three of them got onboard what stood out to Acacia and Medea was how much like an airliner it was. There were rows of seats with windows in the side, each row had six seats total with a center walking lane with a bathroom by the cockpit which was behind a large door and two more bathrooms in the rear. Overhead bins held room for carryon items and cargo had already been loaded under them. When it was all done the civilian airline of the Condor bomber pulled away from the terminal gate and began to taxi down the runway.

"This feels like a normal airline flight not a space flight." said Medea as she and Acacia sat nearest to the window while Robert sat on the outer most. To him this was a normal flight to Medea and Acacia it was their first time on a Tau'ri space craft.

"It can be one." explained Robert as the Condor made the turn onto the runway. It's wings where straight as its powerful engines kicked into gear pushing the full flight back into their chairs as the condor took off. As it left the ground it's landing gear folded in as it kept climbing and climbing, as it climbed the clouds began to disappear and the blue sky was replaced with darkness of space.

"That is a lot faster climb then I expected." Said Medea as the sound of gears turning caused both woman to look at him.

"Look out the window." Said Robert as both woman looked out the window and noticed that the wings had moved into a swept back position.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, we are about to entire hyperspace please stay seated until the fasten seat belt sign is turned off." said the pilot over the intercom as a vortex of energy appeared in front of the Condor and with a rush of speed it began its journey to Valhalla. For a moment both Colonial women just like every other colonial on the airline looked out in amazement at the tunnel of space which would allow them to cross the stars at speeds much faster then what was ever believed possible by the Colonial's before the War.

"Listen Robert, I am sorry about my dad, I thought he knew you were Tau'ri and I had no idea the anger ran that deep." Apologized Acacia as she turned and looked at the man she loves. Robert simply shrugged it off.

"I was actually expecting worse, there are bitter feelings about the war on each side. Your brother seemed to like me and your mom is ok. Besides isn't it kind of a rule that Dad's aren't supposed to like their Daughter's boyfriends?" Said Robert with a laugh, then he decided to make his own apologize. "I should apologized ahead of time, my Dad will likely joke about you being Irish."

"Irish?" inquired Acacia as she titled her head slightly in confusion. "What is Irish and why would he think I was Irish?"

Robert looked at Acacia's bright red hair and deep green eyes.

"Let's say, you kind of fit the stereotypical Irish look." explained Robert with a slight laugh. "But don't worry they know your Colonial and as far as I know they don't care, they want to meet you before they judge you. They would likely be more concerned about you if you where a Michigan fan then if you are Colonial, Ohio State all the way."

"Thanks that makes me feel so much better about meeting your family." said Acacia with a roll of her green eyes as the Condor kept moving toward Valhalla.

 **It was late evening on Valhalla, as the newly appointed head of Valhalla's military defense was a seasoned member of the Stargate Program who was among the small list of humans to travel far beyond either the Pegasus Galaxy or the Milky Way Galaxy, General Everett Young.** He had been in command of the Icarus program when it had journeyed to the Ancient ship, Destiny on its mission to the very heart of the universe. He and the rest of the crew of makeshift expedition crew had been rescued from the far side of the universe by a team of Tau'ri soldiers traveling through a super gate that the ancients had programed drones to build for them to journey to Destiny on the final leg of it's long journey. That had allowed them to return but it hadn't allowed the Destiny to keep going, the ancient ship was too badly damaged from lack of upkeep to keep going. That was why a new program was underway and that program fell under Young's direct supervision.

"General Young, Doctor Rush is here to see you." Said a voice over the intercom as Young rubbed his temples.

"Alright, let him in." said Young as the doors to the office opened and one of the smartest people in the galaxy, the smartest person in his view walked through the doors. Young didn't rise from behind his desk to see another member of the Icarus program. "Rush how are you doing?"

"I am doing well." said Dr. Rush as he sat down across the desk from General Young without getting permission to sit. "I am sure you know why I am here."

"I know, just like all the other times you have come by." Said Young with resigned pain in his voice. "You already have five shipyard docks working on the Prometheus II what do you want me to do?"

"I want three things, first I want another seven shipyards we are building two of the Prometheus class deep space recon ships." Stated Rush

"No, the other shipyards are building warships and items you will just have to deal with 5 docks." Stated Young as the two of them repeated an old argument.

"But the Prometheus class will be 6 times the size of our battleships and it will have to carry all the parts we need to build a Super Gate in another galaxy." Countered Rush, as Young let out a sigh.

"Rush, you are on schedule to launch the Prometheus II to this galaxy in four years and then it is likely going to take you 18 months to get to this galaxy at full speed and then you have to assemble the Super gate near a black hole." Stated Young

"Yes, and that time will be cut in half if you gave me three of the ZPMs we took from the Colonials." Countered Rush

"No, we got 12 of them from the Colonials." said Young with force in his eyes. "Hell, the Colonials would throw a fit if they knew we switched out their holy relics with fakes."

"They are not holy relics we know how to make them." countered Rush

"You think you know how to make them but you can't because you are missing some element right." Stated Young pointing at the doctor. "Zephyr isn't that the name of the element that the Ancients had that makes ZPMs work and that element that we haven't been able to find in either this galaxy or the Pegasus galaxy, even the recon missions into the Ori galaxy has found none. The Ancients purged their data on the source of the element and the ones they didn't purged where destroyed or used up in their war with the Wraith."

"Yes but we know what it does, it has the ability to raise or lower the atomic mass of anything inside a small field. With it we would finally have the piece we need to make ZPMs of our own." Said Rush "However I still need those ZPMs."

"No." stated Young "That is two what is the last one?"

"I want Eli." added Rush

"No, once again I can't give you him." stated Young "He isn't in the military and I have asked him if he wants to work with you on this project and he has turned me down every time. He is happy in the private sector on Earth and from my understanding he is seeing someone and doesn't want to leave her."

Rush let out an angry sigh as he stood up.

"I will contact him myself to convince him to join my team." Stated Rush

"Go right ahead, it will not work." added Young as Rush left the room, he knew he would have to repeat the same talk in a week or two. Dr. Rush still didn't understand that while this mission of exploration was important and the force the Tau'ri where putting behind it showed that, it wasn't at the top of the list of important issues.

 **It was slightly cooler then what Fleet Lord Straha would have liked it but for a winter day it was decent enough.** He was fleet Lord of the Conquest fleet of Vantic 5 and because of that he held the title of Viceroy for Vantic 5, his voice was law on Vantic 5 with only the Fleet Lord of the Colonization fleet Reffet being able to challenge his ruling. Even so he was slightly disappointed, he was fleet lord but he would never be considered one of the conquerors, that honor and place in history would remain with Atvar. That honor would be Atvar's for all time, he knew that some in the emperor court back on home had considered putting him in charge of the Conquest fleet of Tosev 3 but it was decided that Atvar would have the most experience and that he should go.

"Instead I am here fighting against terrorists who keep getting under the scales of the Race." Said Straha as he moved toward one of the large windows in his private office. His office was something else he wasn't happy about, shortly after the conquest Atvar had moved administration to the largest and most powerful city empire of Nuvia. While almost the entire city had been rebuilt into a normal looking city of the Race, the castle palace which had been the home of the ruling emperor remained. The Race had taken it over as a sign of their strength not that they needed it.

"I can't wait to tear down this horrible building down and replace it with a clean efficient design." stated Straha as he looked down out of the window toward the river which the castle overlooked. Along the water were multiple large stone pillars with the names of every member of the race who had died in the conquest inscribed on it. They had suffered slightly more losses then the planners and expected when the conquest was planned. Over a thousand names were on those stones and sadly another name would have to added, the terrorist had killed another male only a day earlier. "It should have been torn years ago but tradition demands we have to wait until the planet is fully under the rule of the Race."

The phone hissed for attention as Straha turned his attention to see a female in a lot less ornate body paint looked out at him from the other side of the video phone.

"Activate two-way voice." ordered Straha to the phone as she saw his image. She moved into the posture of respect.

"Exulted Fleet Lord, I have finished my report on the integration of the new citizens to the empire and I have combined them with what our top researchers know of the behavior of the Vantic people to get the most accurate picture of the path that would most wise to follow." Stated Senior researcher Felless, like all females she had come with the colonization fleet and had spent a lot less time dealing with the Vantics then the members of Conquest fleet.

"Go on." Ordered Straha

"Overall, aside from some unpleasant exceptions the integration goes well, slightly slower then we would like but well." stated Felless "The Vantic people are resentful but so where the Rabotevs and Hallessi when we integrated them into the empire and that passed in time."

"How long?" inquired Straha

"That is where the pattern with the other subject races differ, we believe that those Vantic who deal more with the Race, those in the city and more desirable places on the planet will be fully integrated within two generations." Stated Felless as Straha let out an annoyed hiss at the time frame. "The problem is the more remote areas where we are not fully established namely the far north and far south, there the natives are more likely to fight changes because they have not had as much experience seeing the higher standards of civilization that we have. That makes it hard for them to strive for because they can't see it with their own eye turrets."

"I see." said Straha as he let out a sigh, the far north and the far south was where the large oceans where and when the temperature dropped to near or even slightly below freezing. There was even some parts down there where snow which was almost unheard of even in the poles of home could come down so much protective wrappings was needed. Getting males and females of the colonization fleet to settle there was next to impossible, even males of the Conquest fleet didn't want to be assigned to those areas in Winter. It was also in those areas where the most terrorist attacks took place, that was the heart of terrorism on Vantic 5 and it needed to be crushed. "So we need to settle more in those areas."

"Yes, exulted Fleet Lord that is our current recommendations along with the removal of those structures that do not promote the Race, temples and other places of false worship need either to be converted to worship of the spirits of Emperors past or removed outright." said Felless as she cast down her eyes at the sovereign's name, as so did Straha. "We also need to build more of the modern apartment complexes to show the Vantic the better lives that await them."

"That has been a problem in other areas, our apartments are not designed to serve the bonded units called families that the Vantic use." Stated Straha

"Yes, that is a major concern we have found some Vantic who would rather live in the street with their "families" then live in clean modern apartments by themselves." stated Felles "However if we remove all other options most will accept the new living arrangements and that leads to something we didn't consider when we landed."

"And what is that?" hissed Straha

"The natives are eating a local animal which looks a lot like miniature versions of us." explained Felles as she pulled up an image of a small creature which looked a lot like the Race only it ran on all four and had a long tail. "They use the eating this creature as a sign of defiance against us, we should ban the eating of these creatures."

"Alright, I will have someone draft the orders and it will be carried out." stated Straha, it made logical sense to him. If the locals ate creatures who looked like the Race as a symbol of defiance then they wouldn't eat those creatures. "Is that all?"

"Besides the final capture of the Terror Prince, that is all." Said Felles as she reminded Straha once again of the need to capture the terrorist leader who's family home he now called his own. "Good day Exulted Fleet Lord."

"Good Day senior researcher." Stated Straha as he broke the connection before turning back to the window. "I should have pushed harder for the command of the Conquest fleet for Tosev 3, Atvar will be board out of his mind there and all the while I have to deal with the real pain under the scales but he will get the glory of being the "conquer" of Vantic 5. I get the hard job while Atvar gets the easy one."

 **The Conquest fleet was still over a day away at their current speed from the orbit of Pluto but they where not going to wait for them to arrive.** The forces of the Tau'ri 1st fleet was moving into position to respond ahead of the defense line of battle stations.

"All ships are in position." Reported a deck officer onboard the flagship of the 1st fleet, the battleship Yamanto to the Admiral in command of the entire force. Even so he turned his gaze toward the woman standing beside him, the real power on this ship belonged to her.

"Then shall we begin Admiral?" inquired General Leong, she journeyed from Earth to take personal command of the contact force.

"Yes, General." Confirmed the Admiral as the orders went out.

 **On board the banner ship of the race the 128** **th** **Emperor Heto everything was going as it normally went.** The Fleet Lord had entered the command center and was in the middle of his daily ritural of looking at the holographic image of Tosev 3.

"Show me the image of the warriors of Tosev 3." Ordered Atvar as the image of a Tosevite riding a beast with a shield and spear in his hands appeared on the holographic display. "Hold image I want everyone to look at this image carefully."

All the officers turned an eye turret away from their work and toward the image of the warrior.

"How well will their kind stand up to bullets, land cruisers and killer craft, how well indeed." started Atvar before opening his mouth in a silent laugh which was joined by every officer in the chamber. His laugh was cut short as alarms begin hissing for attention and all the officers snapped their eye turret away from the holographic image of the Tosevite warrior and to the multiple alarms on their own screens.

"Exulted Fleet Lord we are being illumined by multiple powerful radars!" Hissed the officer in command of the radar systems.

"Did someone turn on their radar too early?" inquired Atvar as he turned both eye turret toward his screen, he paused for a moment and Atvar noticed he was standing very still with the only his tail stump slightly moving, he was deathly afraid.

"Exulted Fleet Lord…." Started the officer before pausing "Exulted Fleet Lord the radars are coming from in front of us."

"That is impossible." countered Kirel as the radar operator without orders sent the live radar feed to the main holographic display. Atvar couldn't even be angry at the breach in protocol, he was too stunned the radar did show that the fleet was being illumined by at least a 100 different radar points coming from around the orbit of Tosev 9.

"Go active on our own radar!" ordered Atvar, the operator didn't even give the verbal confirmation of it shall be done. Instead he turned on the radar and instantly didn't believe his eyes.

"By the emperor." Hissed multiple members of the race as they looked at the massive ships which where surrounding them in a half circle pattern. Behind those ships in the orbit rotation of Tosev 9 was a massive space station and smaller ships. Even deeper into the Tosev system where more ships and all of them where in a defensive position.

"We have killer craft in coming!" yelled the operator as Atvar noticed all the dozens of smaller dots on the radar display, they where moving like Killer Craft would in atmosphere but that was impossible. In space they shouldn't be able to move like that but they where. Two flights of 16 killer craft each where heading straight toward them. Then they broke off and circled around the fleet at speeds that should have been impossible for a craft of that size, that is when Atvar noticed that there where more ships. Not as large as the ships nearest to his fleet but they where there behind his fleet. His mind began to race, he was trying to remember if the planners who had lied out the plan invasion of Tosev 3 all those years ago had thought of what to do in case of meeting a threat in orbit. When he didn't remember any he thought about if the Race had ever thought of what to do if they meet another space born power, once again nothing came to mind.

"We are surrounded. How…how are we surrounded." exclaimed Atvar as the radio came to life.

"Attention…you are in Tau'ri space. Stand down all weapons and explain yourselves at once!" Came a computerized voice in his own language. "If you do not begin to stop at once you will be destroyed."

"All ships, fire emergency braking rockets, all stop!" yelled Atvar as he looked around at the situation he and the Race now found themselves in. It wasn't good and he had no pre planned course to fall back on and that frightened Atvar almost as much as the fact that his fleet was now surrounded by unknown ships.

 **Well I hope you liked this chapter, contact between the Race and the Tau'ri is coming. I admit in my original plan I had Robert meeting Acacia's parents when both knew he was Tau'ri but I had multiple PM asking to see what their reaction would be to him being Tau'ri so I added it. Also if you have paid close attention I have placed the ground work for the Mass Effect/Stargate story which will be coming after this. One last thing, that I feel I must address. I don't know why but a lot of people think Admiral Cain from the last story is still alive or want her to come back. Sorry but she is dead and will not be coming back. Now until next time please keep reading. Thanks Wilkins75.**


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5 The Game has Changed**

Across the Conquest fleet of the Race emergency rocket motors where firing as the fleet began a emergency protocol designed to bring them to a stop. The rockets which where mounted across each ship was designed to bring a ship traveling nearly half the speed of light to a stop as soon as possible in case of an oncoming threat. That threat as far as the planners who designed the ships was to come either in the form of an asteroid, comet or body of some kind. It was because of that threat that the ships where armed with missile tubes capable of firing missiles designed to knock those threats out of the way. Now the race had on their claws something no planner back on home every imagined before them was a line of unknown ships and stations all of already in battle formation while their ships where in standard cruising formation meaning that ships near the heart of the fleet couldn't fire on their enemies without hitting their own ships.

"Exulted Fleet Lord, the unknown ships have not moved to come any closer to us." Reported the Radar operator on board the 128th Emperor Heto. Atvar like all the other officers on board and in fact every officer on every ship in the Conquest fleet who was out of cold sleep was trying to get to grips with what was going on. That was a major problem because no one in the Race had ever dreamed of the possibility that they could come into contact with another space fairing empire.

"All Ship Lords are to report in on the emergency communication channel at once, bring all ships with missile launchers to combat ready and prepared to fire explosive metal missiles but only under mine command." ordered Atvar as he consider his combat options in space. There wasn't much to consider, beside the few missile launchers on his ships the only other weapons he could bring into a battle was the couple dozen space killer crafts. The space killer craft was pretty much a glorified shuttle craft but with extra armor and weapons mounted to its side and belly. Like the missile launchers on the ships they where suppose to go after asteroids and comets not take on other killer craft. "I want our space craft crafts launched at once."

"Exulted Fleet Lord, I am not sure if all the pilots we will need to crew those ships are out of cold sleep." explained Kirel "It may take time to awaken their crew and prepare the ships for possible combat. In the mean time what are we going to do with these Taru demands"

Kirel was struggling with the name of these new group and Atvar couldn't blame him he didn't know if he could make the strange sounds himself. The message which had come across the radio moments after their radars went live had that word in what was likely their native launage, the rest was in the launage of the race.

"I do not know yet." admitted Atvar as he looked message which was repeating on all radio frequency.

" _Attention…you are in Tau'ri Space, if you do not begin to stop at once you will be destroyed."_ Read Atvar as he looked at the situation again. The fleet was slowing down and to make matters better using computer models his fleet would come to a stop well outside of missile range. Then a scary thought entered his head, they would be out missile range based on his missiles but what about these Tau'ri. Their space born killer craft were impossibly fast but no they couldn't be in range of them when their ships came to a stop, they had some breathing room.

"The only thing I can think of is that we have come into contact with something all our experts believed impossible." stated Atvar as Kirel's eyes scanned the room for a second before both turrets locked on him. Among the Race that was a sign that Atvar had Kirel's total attention. "We have come into contact with another space born Empire and they have conquered Tosev 3 before we did."

"By the Emperor, that should be impossible we are the most advanced civilization in the galaxy." said Kirel before looking at the screens once again. His eyes turrets moved up and down the screen as his mind tried to find a different answer. "But as much as I hate to admit it, your answer is the most likely answer. Which opens up a whole new line of inquiry how many other empires are there across the galaxy."

"A very true point, but you fail to see a much more important point now." stated Atvar "How big of an empire are we dealing with? We know they have Tosev 3 and the we got transmissions from Tosev 2 and 4 as well as from 3. The empire which colonized Tosev 3 must have set up doomed colonies on those worlds as well. We must send a message back to home at once and inform the Emperor of this development."

"It shall be done." said Kirel as he went to carry out his orders.

 **On board the flag ship of the 1** **st** **fleet the Battleship Yamato the Tau'ri commanders monitored the entire situation with a calm boredom.** The ships of the Race where coming to a stop as fast as possible but it was taking them an extremely long time by the standards of any of the space faring civilizations that the Tau'ri had meet so far. Monitoring them was as easy was keeping an eye on a blind man in an empty parking lot at high noon on a cloudless day. Some of the Tau'ri technicians had split their time between monitoring the Race and monitoring the civilian traffic moving around the system.

"Are they in weapon range?" inquired the Admiral in command of the fleet to the weapon's officer.

"For us no." admitted the weapon's officer as he sat at his command station. "They will be out of range as well in the spot they are likely going to finally stop. That is only for us and our other ships. They are already well within range of our defense stations main weapon."

"I see." confirmed the Admiral

"Be calm Admiral, we can destroy them at any time." said General Leong as she stood beside the Admiral. Even though the Admiral was in command of not only this ship but every ship in the 1st fleet he was outranked. General Leong was command of all Tau'ri military forces and therefor his superior. "Now we need them to start talking among themselves."

"Ma'am, if I may be so bold couldn't we just make official contact with them. Our computer system can translate well enough and we know why they are here. Why wait?" inquired the Admiral "With our holographic technology we can transmit an image straight on board their flag ship."

"I understand your point; however it is better if we find out their current thinking and these aliens from what our brief study has shown do not adapt well. We need to give them time to adapt to one major change before we give them something else to adapt to." answered General Leong "Also it will give our Akula's from the 7th fleet to move into monitoring positions near their worlds. We know some of the field however I want to know it all before I commit our forces. The force is slowing down we will wait until they stop to make another broadcast to them."

"Very well." Said the Admiral clearly, he disagreed with the General's move but he understood the reasons behind the move.

"General, Admiral we are getting multiple broadcasts going between each alien ships." Stated the radio operator, as he pressed a large headphone to his ear. It was giving him an instant translation of the broadcasts. "Sounds like they are mostly confirming that they are coming to a stop and that they are arming explosive metal missiles and space born killer crafts."

"Explosive metal missiles? Could that be nuclear weapons?" inquired the Admiral as he turned toward another technician. It took the technician at the terminal which had access to the Race's computer system only a couple of moments as he typed in Explosive Metal missile and the image of a nuclear explosion. "Well there is the answers that. Killer craft could they mean fighters?"

"That would be a likely answer, did our search into their computers find any designs for their killer crafts?" inquired General Leong

"Yes, General." Confirmed an aid "Most of them are atmosphere bond jet aircraft similar in performance and capably of a late third generation fighter such as MIG 29 or early F-14 Tomcat all before being upgraded of course. Our Eagles will beat them senseless if it came to it."

"Very good and their space born killer craft?" inquired General Leong

"Even more one sided then their air born jet fighters." said the aid as he pulled up the image of the Race's response to an Eagle Space Superior Fighter. It looked as if someone had put a handful of weapons on a shuttle craft, there was no high performance turning jets, no way to quickly move in a dog fight in short it was a laughable excuses for a true fighter. The only benefit it had was that it did carry more missiles then an Eagle did but that meant little if it couldn't move itself.

"So we are in no real danger." stated General Leong "We will let them get their act together. Are we on the news yet?"

"Yes, but no one is worried, they all have come to basically the same conclusion you have General." Said the communication officer as General Leong nodded her head.

 **The Condor liner exited hyperspace in the assigned corridor for civilians' liners, it was far outside of the defense stations and navy warships.** Even so Acacia, Medea and the other colonials on the liner looked out their windows in amazement at the massive 3rd fleet of the Tau'ri. The 3rd fleet was assigned to the defense of Valhalla and a response force to anything either the Colonials or the Cylons attempted to do. Robert was quietly laughing to himself as he watched Acacia's and Medea's reaction to the sight of the 3rd fleet and Valhalla. The Condor flew past the defense stations and the ships and joined the mass of civilian ships which were moving through the system. The Condor didn't move toward the large space port which was clearly visible in orbit of Valhalla. Instead it dove toward the dark side of the planet. The condor shook a bit as it went from the vacuum of space to the atmosphere of Valhalla.

"So your family fly in tomorrow morning and we get the Disney hotel then?" inquired Acacia

"Well they are coming by the Stargate but yes." Confirmed Robert as the landing gear of the Condor came down. Below them they could see the space/air port which had three large runways with two large terminals one for passengers the other for cargo. The condor landed with no issues and taxied to the assigned terminal. Then came the madness of getting off the condor but when the three of them got off the condor and through customs which took longer for Acacia and Medea then Robert. With that done Robert lead the way down a level to where they got their store away bags and then down yet another level where multiple high speed trains came in and out. The entire place was amazing to the two colonials, they couldn't help but notice all the new technology which graced every corner. The high arched ceilings and gleaming perfectly cleaned floors.

"We need to get on the one for Celin." said Robert as they got onto one of the cars. To their amazement they had the traincar to themselves as the train took off with a smooth grace.

"We are now departing the Celin air and space port, next stop will be Valhalla Nuclear Attack Memorial." stated the announcer as Medea and Acacia looked out over the darkened country of Valhalla. It was just past 9 at night and people were heading to bed and turning out the lights. At first it didn't look that different to the two colonials they saw trees, street lights and lights from homes. Then they saw a darkened lake and across the lake they could see the bright lights of their resort.

"Wow…that looks even more amazing in person." said Acacia as they could the lights bouncing off Elsa's Ice Castle at the heart of Valhalla Disney. Then the train made a turn and they saw a solemner looking area which was a massive stone wall with somber lights glowing on them from below. Out of the corner of her eyes Acacia saw Robert snap to attention with sadness in his eyes. Then it hit her, that was the memorial for the nuclear strike on Valhalla, something he lived through and saw with his own eyes. The monorail stopped for a moment before moving on.

"Robert, why don't once we check into our hotel we come back here?" inquired Acacia as Robert looked at her stunned for a moment.

"Are you sure?" inquired Robert as Acacia nodded her head as the monorail turned the corner and they saw the skyline of the capital of Valhalla, Celin in the distance. The tall towers reached up into the darkened sky with, they were impossibly thin and impossible tall. The tallest of the towers was located in the heart of the city with multiple slightly taller towers spread around the city.

"By the Lords of Kobol." Said Acacia as the train made a few more stops before they passed through of all things a wall and into the city itself.

"Why is there a wall?" inquired Medea

"The shield falls from the top of the command tower and drops down over the city until it reaches that wall." explained Robert "Without the shield the city would have taken a lot of damage from the nuclear strike however with it, it and the people inside at the time were saved."

"Even your cities have shields." Said Medea as she looked down at the people and cars moving around the street. She could see that even as people where calling it a night the city was alive with life, she could people hard at work in one job or another. Finally they reached their stop and headed toward the hotel. The hotel lobby was grand in nature with marble and wood work, a grand reception desk sat before a line of elevators.

"Welcome to Hilton Hotel Celin." said the clerk at the desk. "Can I help you?"

"Yes, we are here to check in." said Robert as he handed over his Military ID. "Under Lefeld."

"Ah…yes here you are." Said the clerk "Captain Lefeld welcome to Valhalla, we have you as a one night stay with a check out early in the morning. A single room with a double bed, is that correct?"

"Yes." confirmed Robert

"Alright then with your military discount the total comes to $90." said the clerk as Robert paid the bill clerk. "The pool and gym is open until 2 am with it open again at 6am, check out is no later than 11 am."

"Well by then we will be in Disney." Said Acacia as the Clerk smiled.

"We get a lot of people coming from Earth and Lanagara to visit Disney." said the Clerk with a warm smile "Can I get your two IDs and I an issue you access clearance."

"Ok." said Acacia as she and Medea reached into their bags and pulled out their colonial citizen ID and their travel visas. The clerk paused for a moment stunned as he checked the colonial IDs of the two women.

"Oh…I didn't know you two where colonial." admitted the Clerk with no smile on his face and with slight harness in his voice but he went to work. When he was done he handed over the IDs and looked at Robert. "Sir, put your hand on the pad."

Robert placed his hand on a clear pad built into the top of the desk. With that done, he told Acacia and then Medea to do the same.

"Alright, the computer has you in the system, Room 417. Thank you for staying with us."

With that the three of them headed toward the elevator.

"He doesn't like Colonials." said Medea as the elevator closed behind them and it start up.

"We did nuke this world, they aren't going to be jumping for joy to meet us." said Acacia before looking at Robert. "That must be what you have to deal with all the time."

"Not really." said Robert with a shrug "On Aquaria they seem to love us but on Sagittarian it slightly different, more likely to be dodging bullets than anything else."

"Well let's go check out our room and then we can go back to that memorial." said Medea as they got off on their floor and walked to room 415. The two colonials looked at the door with some confusion, there was no key slot for a key card nor any visible lock. There was a handle and nothing else that made the door stand out. Acacia reached out and tried the door but it wouldn't open.

"What the frak? Wait that guy never gave us any keys." inquired Acacia as Robert moved beside her and ran his hand over a small vatical strip of blue on the wall beside the door that the two colonials had assumed to be a hallway light of some kind. Instead the door unlocked and it opened for Acacia.

"DNA scanners, when we placed our hands on the scanner it took a touch DNA sample and that allows us to open the door to our room and other places without a key card." explained Robert "I heard the Ancients used these all the time in their cities and they are catching on here."

"My brother would flip out at that." said Acacia in wonder as they entered the hotel room to find what they expected to find two beds, a small table with two chairs with a sink with a mirror and a bathroom off to the side.

"So I'll take this bed, you two can share that one." Said Medea as she placed her bag on the table. "No funny business I want some sleep."

 **On board the ships of the Conquest fleet no one was sleeping as the multiple ship lords tried to figure out what to do.** They were talking to each other using their most secured radio communication channel not knowing that they were in fact being listened into in real time by the Tau'ri.

"Exalted Fleet Lord, how could these Tau'ri be real? We are the Race no one is equal to us." stated a ship lord form one of the larger ships as the entire bridge staff of the Tau'ri battleship Yamato listened to their conversation.

"We outnumber them, we should push through and take Tosev 3." advised another Ship Lord, the computers slightly changing the computerized translation voice to make them easier to ID. "Who knows maybe the sword swing savages will welcome us."

"Maybe." Admitted Fleet Lord Atvar "However I am concern if you notice the ships that surround us all appear to be warships, if those stations are also armed pushing through them will cost us a lot of ships."

"Truth." said a lot of males "And how would the Emperor take it if we declared war on another space fairing power without his say so. We should send a message back to Home at once."

"Truth." Said more males

"A message is already underway." Confirmed Atvar

"We blocked the message." reported the communication officer to General Long "And it was traveling at the speed of light, it would have taken the message around 10 years to get there."

"Still better safe than sorry." Stated General Leong as she put a hand under her chin. "How hard would it be to patch me into their channel?"

"Cake walk, General." Confirmed the communication officer as he did the work on his computer pad, before handing it to the General. "Just touch the button on the corner there and it will patch you in."

"Then it is time to shake their cages once again." stated General Leong as she waited for the right moment.

 **Far away from the situation by Pluto Captain Lee Adama sat on the park bench in the still being rebuilt Caprica City.** The young man had risen through the ranks for his skills inside of a Viper space fighter, he had been shot down two times over Tauron during the war only to be captured by the remains of his father's own Battlestar which had crashed on the planet. Lee still shook his head as he remembered seeing that might old ship lying on its back partly in the surface. There had been talked about recovering the Galactica and putting her back into space, that wasn't meant to be. The government including now his father Admiral William Adama who was in command of the whole Colonial Military decided there was no point. The Galactica was an old ship when this all started and was on its way to becoming a museum before the Tau'ri war. The Tau'ri had made all current battlestars useless and spending the now much limited colonial military budget raising an outdated old ship from the surface was seen as pointless and wasteful. Lee had watched as the metal workers from Tauron had begun to cut into the Galactical as the once military ship was turned into scrap metal to be melted down to rebuild people's homes and lives.

"Weapons of War turned into tools for a new age of peace." repeated Lee outload as he said the tag line which the government had come out with when selling the fact that the military budget was almost nothing compared to what it had once been. Lee out another sigh as he stood up and looked around at all the new buildings going up as the Capital City of the Colonies of Kobol rose again. In the distance, he could see the Quorum building which was going up, it would be an almost perfect copy of the old one however instead of 13 statues of the Lords of Kobol there would only be 12. The statue for the goddess which was supposed to look over Earth would no longer grace the building. Same was true for a lot of symbols which had been in place as reminders that the Colonies had one world missing. In all those symbols places a much more visible reminder of the fact that everything had changed stood.

Across from where Lee sat stood a very large building with a large wall which went about 10 ft tall was the Tau'ri main Embassy to the 12 Colonies of Kobol. While each world had an mission building that the Tau'ri had set up in their main city to help with relations the one true Embassy was here in the Capital City. Overall it was an impressive but semi-simple building. It was surrounded by the 10 foot wall but there was no barb wire on top of it, the building was five stories high and made out of pure white marble with a small part of the building shooting out with a simple colonnade which marked the entrees. The whole building, he knew was shaped like a block O with an courtyard in the middle. Colonial Military Intelligence knew that the court yard was big enough to land a Tau'ri Owl transport if they had to and the nearby parking structure had a large hanger on the top where at least three Owl transport sat. A massive blue and silver Tau'ri flag flapped from a tall flag pole located just outside the building.

The Tau'ri Embassy wasn't alone either, while the other great powers in the Galaxy hadn't seen fit to form any formal ties with the Colonies, the Cylons had. Across a large fenced in park which was open to the public even though it was owned by the Tau'ri sat the Cylon Embassy. It was a five-story windowless building with multiple communication towers poking out the top. There was a yard but no trees or landscaping graced it. Six old Cylon Centurions stood post outside, it was believed that they had a new updated version but the Colonials had never seen them. No one went into the Embassy and no one went out, it was more of a place for protestors and there were some there now.

"Time to go." Said Lee as he stood up and cross the road toward the two Tau'ri guards which stood at the checkpoint. These Tau'ri where armed and wore bullet proof vests but they lacked the power armor and full combat gear that they had used on the battlefield.

"Stop." Said one of the Tau'ri guards as Lee stopped at the checkpoint. "Who are you and what is your business."

"Captain Lee Adama, here to meet with the Military Consular." explained Lee as he held out his papers. The guard studied the paper and studied Lee for a moment before checking a small computer built into a mount on his wrist.

"Sorry about that Captain Adama, he is expecting you." Said the guard as Lee was allowed to pass and entered the ground, here more Tau'ri guards where visible however they were dressed like the ones outside. Lee knew that if he had gone to Sagittarian all those guards would be in full combat gear, the wall would be much thicker and everyone would be expecting an attack to happen at any moment. Lee entered the building to find a Tau'ri he was looking for waiting for him in the lobby.

"Ah…Captain Adama how are you doing this fine day?" inquired the man, he was slightly taller then Lee but almost every Tau'ri he meet seamed taller than the average Colonial. He wore a Tau'ri duty uniform but with no visible weapon on his hip, the only thing that made him really stand out was that he wore rather thick rimmed glasses.

"Hello Colonel Chopra." Said Lee as he greeted his counterpart, this man like him had the job of making sure that the each military didn't end up shooting at each other.

"Well why don't we go to my office and we can discuss our plans to increase the shipments of goods around the colonies." Said Colonel Chopra as the former Indian Army Officer and veteran of the war guided Lee toward his office. "I understand that your efforts of rebuilding your shipyards is behind schedule."

"Yes, so we will need your ships to help longer than we thought." admitted Lee with some shame not well hidden in his voice.

"Shouldn't be an issue but I am afraid I will have to wait to check it out with Earth at the moment." reported Colonel Chorpia "A small situation has arisen back home and we are currently focused on that."

"Is it a threat?" inquired Lee

"Hardly, more like a buzzing insect but it is taking the focus away from you all for the moment. I would expect an answer within a few hours." explained Colonel Chorpia as they reached his office. "Now let's work out the details and we can see if we can help you all along."

 **Open air markets had been a the heart of every city on Vantic since civilization was young now the multiple open air markets were one of the last places was almost totally for the natives on their home world.** The Race looked down on these markets preferring their shopping centers and clean organized stores not the wild mess of the open market. The Vantic natives moved through the market buying and selling items like they had done for years before the arrival of the Race. On the outside it looked just as it would have been generations ago however it was very different, soldiers of the Race moved through the market with weapons ready for a fight, the cube like buildings which Race preferred was slowly pushing out the market for their own shopping centers and apartments. Temples to Ancestors which could have been beside each market had either torn down or replaced to the Race's religion. The domed buildings with a tall spire shooting out of the center where a bell would ring out every hour were gone. Instead standing in their place where more cubed buildings detected to Emperors past.

"How much for the Yauas?" inquired a female Vantic as a youngling hid under her main body. It was common for young children to hid under the main body of their parents when they were scared and so it was true for this boy.

"Not cheap." Said the seller as he eyed the female, it was clear that she was poor her cloths where torn and her hardened shell showed spots of white in it, a sign that she had hadn't been eaten well lately. Then he turned his head toward the container beside him which contained multiple yauas, the yauas was a staple of everyone's diet and surprising looked a lot like their overlords. The female looked disappointed and as about to turn to leave when he spotted the little boy hiding under his mother, he was thin and hunger looking. Pity filed his two hearts as he thought about what he could do to help. "I could part with one of the smaller ones."

"Really?" inquired the female as the seller pulled out a small Yauas but to the amazement of the female it wasn't the smallest one but it was still on the small size.

"Yes, normally I would charge 15 race credits for even this one." Said the seller "For you I'll do 8."

"Thank you." Said the female as she paid the seller the money and was about to turn to leave when an armed squad of soldiers appeared.

"Stop what you are doing, selling of those creatures are now banded by order of the Fleet Lord." ordered the small unit commander.

"But why? We need these to eat." Said the female as the male of the race aimed his rifle at her.

"Release that animal or you will be taken into custody." Said the small unit commander as other members of the squad gathered up the containers holding the rest of Yauas. When the seller tried to stop them one of the males arrested him and then with just as suddenly as it started it was over and the poor female was left with no money and no food to feed her son.

"Mom, I am hungry." pleaded the boy as the mom lowered herself to his level.

"Don't worry I will get you something to eat, don't you worry." said the mom as she pulled him into a hug, behind her son's back she began to blinked rapidly, a sign of crying among them.

She never saw when arrived or how long he had been there, she just felt a shadow on her. When she looked up she saw three males, all of them had traveling cloaks on with their hoods up. That was strange enough but then she saw that one of them had a Race's pistol in the belt around his middle and another had multiple one-shot pistols that used to be the height of technology before the Race came on him. The other one, the one in the middle didn't have a gun not that she saw but her black eyes widened as she looked up.

"It can't be." She whispered.

"Yes, I am Prince Unia." said the last living member of the royal family of their city, he was among the last still fighting the Race openly and was the most wanted male on the planet. She turned her head to look at both of his guards, they must have been some of the last of the order of Protection which had once numbered in the thousands. "Where is your mate? The Boy's father?"

"Imprisoned by the Race, for speaking out against that." Said the female as she pointed toward the Shrine to Spirits of Emperor's past. "He tried to stop them from building it and they took him away."

"I am sorry." Said the Prince as he reached behind him, this lifted his cloak a bit and that is when she saw the ancestral blade which every member of his family had carried since the founding of the city. It was a sure sign of his right to rule and that it was indeed him. When his hand came back around he had a small bag.

"This isn't much, I am sorry for that but it should be enough for you get a couple of meals and a place to stay." said Prince Unia as the female bowed her head low and touched her forehead a sign of respect and thanks. "I am sorry I couldn't do more but someday we will be free again and your boy like all the children on our world will be free of the Race."

"Thank you." said the female

'My Prince, we need to go." advised one of the guards as the three males headed away from the market and the shrine to spirits of Emperor past. As they walked away a boom filled the air followed by alarms as a bomb went off inside the Shrine to Spirits of Emperors past.

 **The night was pitch black on Sagittarian as a heavy duty semi-truck rolled into a warehouse in the middle of an overcrowded warehouse district.** The warehouse on first glace was rather small and unnoticeable, a loading dock that allowed the semi to back a trailer up to a position where forklifts could unload it with ease. Along the walls where small boxes marked with light machinery and when someone opened them that is what they would find. Only thing that really stood out where the multiple men in civilian clothing with military grade rifles and assault rifles in their hands.

"Right on time." Said the head guard as he tapped the side of the truck. In the driver jumped out of the cab as the garage door lowered cutting them off from anyone who might pass by in the middle of the night. "What did you bring this time?"

"We got some Siri bolt action rifles and pistols with enough ammo to supply five squads." Said the arms dealer "I have a line on some grenades and high explosive rounds maybe even some anti-tank rockets."

"Great, that will teach those Fraking Tau'ri a lesson." said the terrorist cell leader as the two embraced. "Good Job my friend."

"Thanks, it was actually nothing, bribing a few supply officers isn't that hard a lot of them want revenge against the Tau'ri most of all if they are Sagittarian. So they are willing to cook the books." laughed the armed dealer "Now I will give your boss the normal discount this time but when it comes to the explosives I will not be able too. Having a few old rifles go missing is one thing high explosives is another."

"That is fine." Said the cell leader "However I know we are in the market for Tau'ri weapons can you get ahold of any of those. We can strike the fear of the Lords of Kobol in them when we turn their own weapons against them."

The arms dealer lowered his head before shaking his head.

"Sorry, I have gotten my hands on a handful of Tau'ri firearms left behind from the battlefield on Tauron but our wayward cousins have designed their guns with computers in them." Explained the dealer "We have tried to fire them but they will not fire, we have tried to hack into the computer system in the guns but every attempt we have tried ends with the computer being fried and the gun is scrape metal. We don't have enough Tau'ri weapons to keep experimenting until we find out how they work."

"The Tau'ri love technology so much that they even their guns have computers." Spat the terrorist cell leader as another member of the cell walked up with a briefcase. "We will cure them of their love of technology after we bring them back into the embrace of the Lords of Kobol."

"Yes, we shall." said Dealer as he took the brief case and checked the gold inside before closing it with a with a smile "Now let's unload my goods."

"Alright." Said the terrorist as they began to unload the weapons when it was done and paid for the dealer left. Moments after the truck pulled out the power went out pitching the warehouse into pure darkness. The darkness was suddenly filled with the sound of whispered quiet gunfire, when the lights flickered back on all ten-terrorist lied died with bullet wounds in their chests and heads. Moving out of a crouching positions around the warehouse came five Tau'ri special forces members dressed in black.

"You got the tracker on the truck?" inquired the commander

"Yes, sir." Confirmed a member of the team "We will follow him back to his base and then go pay him a visit, once we cut off their weapons our task becomes much easier."

"Alright, check to see if anyone else is here. Then get ready for a burn job." ordered the commander as the Tau'ri moved around the warehouse with their life sign detectors scanning for signs of life.

"Sir, I got something." Said one of them at the far wall, "Looks like there is a large group of people behind this wall."

"Sir, I got a door." added another as one of them pushed away a small shipping container to find a hidden door. The Tau'ri formed a breaching line and with one quick move they breached the door with weapons raised and ready to fire. What they found caused all of them to lower their weapons, there where multiple children ranging from just over a year old to teenagers. All of them where chained to rows of bunk beds, the children recoiled from the sight of armed men.

"Get on the horn to command, we can't do a torch and burn job here." ordered the commander with a small amount of complaint in his voice. "We will have to make this look official."

The Tau'ri all of whom where former members of agencies such of the CIA, MI5, GRU and other intelligence agencies which were now blending together into a central agency. This mission was a black mission in which the Colonials had not been informed of their operation and if everything had gone as planned they would never had known.

"Yes, sir." confirmed the radio man as the one female member of the team moved forward and using her power armor began to break the chains holding the children in place.

"And find something to cover the bodies, we don't want the kids to see what happened out there." added the commander to the radio man.

"Sir, what the hell are a bunch of children doing at a terrorist arms deal?" inquired the explosive expert, his job would have been to make the warehouse suddenly catching fire look like an accident.

"My money on these being some of the missing religious refugee children." Added the commander as the two Tau'ri looked at the children, some recoiled in fear thinking they would be hit again. "Taken from their parents because they didn't accept the lords of Kobol and beaten into accepting by some."

"Sir, sometimes I wish we had fired the Ragnarok on this world. It is like we are dealing with one massive cult here." Said the explosive expert

"I can't say I totally disagree with you." added the commander "However do you remember how all our religious groups fought each other for years? Also aside from Sagittarian and Gememon the Colonies aren't totally bad."

"Sir, a team from Aquaria is on route." said the radio man

"Alright, now we wait." said the commander as he ran the numbers in his head, by the time the regular soldiers arrived if the Colonials Police Officials did any type of forensic work then they should be able to tell that the 10 dead colonial terrorist had died before the arrival of the official Tau'ri forces. "This might get messy politically."

 **Atvar had remained quiet for most of the time as he let the multiple different ship lords share their views.** This was something that the Race in general didn't allow, it was up to the higher ranks to provide structure and proper planning so that the lower ranks could carry out their duty as easily as possible. The race was built on four strong pillars that guided every member of the Race. First that the spirits of Emperor past would guild them and watch over them in the next life. Secondly that discipline and long planning was most important for a social society. The third pillar was a twin to the second, that while every citizen had rights the good of the empire and the Race was the most important thing for any citizen of the Empire. The last pillar was the fact that they were the most advanced civilization in the galaxy, that pillar was now under attack. There was no planning for a situation like the one they found themselves in now and as such Atvar had to do something alien to the Race, he had to think on his feet.

If he had proper time he would have teams of planners going over every possible move he could take and every possible outcome of those actions. This would have allowed Atvar to carry out the plan that would work 100% of the time and would prevent any negative effects to the Race, in a perfect universe that plan would take a couple of years to plan at least maybe decades however he had to do things in a few hours. To help him he had opened the floor and letting a rare very rare debate to take place between the ship lords.

"Exulted Fleet Lord I believe we have heard all the possible recommendations and counter points to them." stated Kirel as he turned an eye turret toward his fleet Lord.

"Yes, I do think we will drive home that we outnumber these Tau'ri and that we are warriors of the most advanced empire in the galaxy." stated Atvar "We will determine their strength and how long they have ruled Tosev 3 and from there we will move forward and force them into line."

He had a plan and was about to put it into action when a strange slight barking sound came over the wireless.

"What is that?" inquired Atvar, having never heard a chuckle before he had no idea what it was.

"I must admit, listening in to your talk about how powerful you are and how you outnumber us has been slightly entertaining it is time to bring that to a close. This is General Leong of the Tau'ri on board the Flag Ship of the 1st Fleet the battleship Yamato" said a computer voice at Atvar's head snapped toward Kirel.

"Sir, we are on our most encrypted channel there shouldn't be a way they could listen to us." explained Kirel

"Yet they appear to have." hissed Atvar

"General Leong, I am Fleet Lord Atvar of the Conquest fleet of the Race. We have come to this system to claim it in the name of our Emperor…" started Atvar

"Yes, we know." Said General Leong interrupting the Fleet Lord to the amazement of every Ship Lord listening into the conversation. By rights the Fleet Lord should never be interrupted in any way, he was appointed by the Emperor himself and had the right to rule. "Now let's clear some things up right away, you are not the most advanced civilization in the Galaxy not even close. Your numbers mean nothing besides giving more targets for my ships and stations to hit so don't count on them to carry you to victory."

"We have 514 ships you have a faction of that, your stations are large but we have already mapped a path to avoid them." Started Atvar "You are the one outnumbered and out gun."

"Really?" inquired General Leong, even with a compute translating for her a cold cockiness came thought. "Let me show you just how out classed you are…Cairo Station fire a warning shot."

The third and the one the greatest distance away of the three Kusanagi class defense stations which had the conquest fleet of the Race within range turned its massive ancient beam cannon slightly so that it would pass just in front of the Conquest fleet. The station which was named after the city of Cairo on Earth just like all of her sister stations in the system, the tip of the massive cannon glowed green for a moment before a beam of energy capable of cutting through the shields and armor of all but the most powerful ships in a single strike came shooting out. The beam shot forward cutting right infront of the Conquest fleet, they didn't have as many live video broadcast sensors as the Tau'ri on their ships but it was enough for them to see the beam of energy pass them by before traveling even deeper into space before breaking apart and fading into nothingness.

"By the Emperor they have energy based weapons?" exclaimed Kirel beside Atvar, both of them had toured factories where machines where cut out with high power lasers but no one in the history of the Race had ever dreamed of turning them into weapons.

"I would recommend you reevaluate that opening you claimed to have found?" advised General Leong as Atvar turned both eye turrets toward a technician who was putting in the range that beam of energy had gone into the combat conquer, once the new data was put in the narrow path which they had found that would have taken them to Tosev four without being in missile range disappeared. They were in fact already within striking range of three stations and as they went deeper the interlace of fire became thicker and thicker. "I assume I have your attention now?"

"You do." admitted Atvar as he took a different path. "I hereby request and audience with your Emperor or his Viceroy to discuss the current situation and the way forward for both our Empires. I believe a face to face meeting would be for the best."

"I agree." Confirmed General Leong "I will order the launch of a transport which will take you to Earth or as you call it Tosev 3 to meet with our leaders. It will launch shortly."

"The journey to Tosev 3 will take about a year, I would like to meet your leaders as soon as possible." Stated Atvar as he bit down a hiss of anger, he was a Conquer he shouldn't have to request anything. By rights they should be coming to him not the other way around, however that beam weapon that changed things.

"By your technology it would take about six of our months to get into the system, with us it will take about an 90 minutes at civilian cruising speed." stated General Leong "I will launch the transport within the hour, until then Fleet Lord."

With that the line went dead as Atvar turned both eye turrets to Kirel.

"Things have not turned out as we had planned." stated Atvar, to a member of the Race that was a sure sign of how much of a mess they now found themselves in.

Back on the Battleship Yamato General Leong turned to the Admiral in command.

"Have a Condor ready to for flight within the hour, I want the door into the cockpit reinforced and two armed marines in the passenger area with another on in the cockpit as backup." ordered General Leong, the Condor had room for three pilots with one resting so a marine could fit easily. "I should have inquired if the Condor can dock with their ship?"

"General we have studied the blue prints of their ships that we have taken from their computer system and yes using a universal docking kit it can dock with the ship." confirmed the Admiral

"Good." Said General Leong as she checked her watch. "We should get our first reports from the Akulas we sent to their conquered worlds by the time the Condor takes off."

 **Unknown to General Leong at that same moment the first of four Akula class ships from the 7** **th** **fleet appeared out of hyperspace a fair distance away from the home system of the Race**. Since it couldn't travel in hyperspace with it's cloak on it cloaked at once and began to map the system all the while being undetected by the Race. The system had a total of five planets, two large gas giants on the outside of the system, with two more planets in the habitual range and the final one closer toward the star but that one had an atmosphere like Venus before it was terraformed. The two planets in the habitual range were on opposite side of the scale. One of the was far too cold with no atmosphere at all, the other one had an atmosphere but an environment so much on the warm side that it made the deserts of any world that Tau'ri had settled on seam cool. That world however had a lot of ships, stations and satellites moving around it.

"Well I think we found it." said the Captain of the Akula class ship, Key West as she moved moved toward the very heard of the Race's Empire, Home.

 **Sorry for the slight delay in posting this Chapter, the last week has what I like to call Murphy's Law Week, whatever could go wrong did go wrong and that caused a delay in writing and posting. Now I hope you still enjoyed this chapter. Until next time please keep reading. Thanks Wilkins75.**


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6 Reflections**

Inside the hanger bay of the Battleship Yamato a Condor transport which was almost a mirror image of the Condor Bomber which had terrorized the Colonials during the war was being prepared to launch. Like its bomber counterparts, the transport had a narrow frame with extendable wings that could go straight or back into a V formation for speed and when it used it's hyper drive. It was painted black with the Tau'ri flag painted on the tail along with its ID number. Multiple windows where clearly visible on the side of the body of the plane which along with no weapon mounts on the wings was what marked it as a transport. Even so three Tau'ri marines where walking up a gang way to enter the plane, all three marines along with the two pilots, an unarmed diplomat and a technician where all wearing full combat space suits, which including power armor, body armor and small air tanks on their backs that would give them all six hours of life support. The three marines along with the pilots were also armed, the technician, the pilots along with the marines all carried pistols on top of that the marines carried heavier weapons. Since if a fight did happen they would be fighting inside the body of the Condor they forgo their Sir-15 assault battle rifles for the smaller Vector VI carbines. The carbines where smaller and therefor best to use in confined places and was a favorites of armored warriors who would have them in their tanks and APCs.

One of the marines disappeared into the cockpit with the two pilots took up position in the spare pilot seat as the reinforced door. The technician made sure the door to the cockpit was sealed so no hijack could have a realistic chance of being a success and then the door leading into the aircraft was sealed. The technician double checked to make sure the universal docking hood was firmly attached before confirming everything was ready for takeoff. The two marines and the diplomat took up three of the six seats which made up the front row of the aircraft.

On the outside the hanger bay crew went to work, the Condor was moved toward the launching position. If they wanted too they could have used the catapults to get the Condor off the Battleship faster however there was no rush and the catapults where more used for combat launches. The Condor moved to a launch position as a blast barrier shield activated behind the bird to make sure that the blast from the engines had no effect on anyone walking behind the bird at the time.

"Condor 13 you are clear for takeoff." said the hanger control

"Roger control, taking off now." said the pilot as he put his hand on the center control and moved it forward as the engines kicked out more thrust and the condor took off down the runway. It passed through the shield and entered space, before making a turn to move past the main section of the Yamato as it headed toward the large group of Alien ships gathered in the distance. They had already ID the flag ship or banner ship as their briefing told them the Race called it.

"127th Emperor Hetto this is Condor 13 from the Battleship Yamato." said the pilot over the radio, trusting the translator problem to do its job. "We have you in our sights and will arrive in a few moments."

"Understood Condor 13." said a hissing voice over the radio. "We are turning on docking lights now, will you be able to dock with our ship?"

"127th Emperor Hetto, we see the lights." reported the pilot as he saw the yellowish white lights which marked the docking arm of the races ship. It came out of the main body of the ship and jutted into space. "We have a universal docking seal on our ship, if we can't get a docking lock then we will come up with somewhere else to get you to the meeting."

"Understood." answered the operator as the pilot went to work. The link up was a little bit of trouble but not much of one. The main issue was that the hatch on the Race's shuttle was in the rear by the engines instead of on the side by the front like it was for the Condor. This gave the condor limited room since the area was designed to be backed into not pulled alongside of. The condor fired small rocket motors and moved into position.

"Deploying universal hatch." reported the technician as out of the side of the condor a long tube of blackened material stretched out toward the docking hatch of the Race. Once it reached the hatch it compressed on the end until it was air tight with the race's hatch.

"Board is clean, pumping in air." reported the technician to the pilot as the two marines and the diplomat moved into position. "Slight issue, they don't have artificial gravity, recommend we turn ours off for the moment."

"Understood." said the pilot as the copilot flipped a few switches and as the gravity was turned off inside the ship. At once the seat belts floated up slightly and so did the humans, the humans came back down as the small gravity plates in their space combat boots brought them down to the floor.

"Alright current temperature is 85 degrees, might as well make them conformable." said the technician as he pumped the temperature up, the suits being space suits had their own heating and cooling systems so they stayed at whatever personalized temperature the wearer wants. "We are ready."

"Alright." said the pilot as he radioed the readiness to the Race's star ship.

 **On board the Banner ship of the Conquest fleet Atvar floated near the entrees to the docking arm, he wasn't alone.** Floating beside him was a senior researcher who had just been awoke from cold sleep and had been shoved into a situation he had no real idea how to handle yet.

"What are your first impressions of these Tau'ri?" inquired Atvar

"I am sorry exulted Fleet Lord but there isn't that much data yet." explained Senior Researcher Ttomalass "I don't have enough data points to get a good understanding of these Tau'ri, once we have more contact with them or at least the Tosevites they have taken into their Empire will allow us to get a better understanding of these Tau'ri."

"And you, Drefsab?" inquired Atvar to the most cunning male in the Conquest fleet and head of the Intelligence force in the Conquest fleet.

"I am highly concerned exulted Fleet Lord, this is something we never expected to come across." explained Drefsab "They have already demonstrated that they are more advanced than us, the issue is how advanced are they?"

"We are the Race we can bend them to our will, we have never failed we shall not fail here." countered Ttomalass, as he turned one eye turret toward the strange black craft which was extending a docking attachment and another to the squad of infantry males floating in the corridor behind them weapon ready. He knew at three more squads where armed and ready to move in if they had to, two infantry males would be coming with them as guards both of them where highly trained intelligence and special operations soldiers. They floated just behind himself and the Fleet Lord with their own rifles resting in their hands ready to defend their fleet lord and their ship if they had too. One of them had a large backpack which contained the long-range radio if they had to communicate the fleet.

Atvar paused for a moment as he waited for confirmation, he closed his eyes and thought. He wouldn't go down in history as Atvar conquer of Vantic 5 and Tosev 3. Then he gave the negative gesture to himself which caused the other males with him to look at him.

"What is wrong exulted fleet Lord?" inquired Senior researcher Ttomalass

"Nothing, really just thinking to myself." Admitted Atvar "I thought I would not go down in history as the first Fleet Lord to conquer two worlds Vantic 5 and this world here, Tosev 3, but I would go down as the first fleet Lord to make official contact with another advanced space faring empire. That is a first worthy of our history."

"That is a truth." confirmed Dresefv as the light on the air lock turned green informing everyone that the two ships where docked and they were cleared to open the doors.

"Open it." ordered Atvar

"It shall be done." answered a technician by the door as the door opened and Atvar was about to enter history. The doors slowly opened on both sides and Atvar's eyes widened a bit before he let out a hiss of annoyance. Standing there in the door leading into the strange ship where three aliens dressed in black wrappings. They stood on two legs and where taller than a male of the race by almost double, two of them where clearly infantry males since they held firearms in their hands. They all wore full face helmets however two of them had darkened visors which didn't allow him to see the Tau'ri only the one in the center the one who wasn't armed had a clear visor over his face. The face while somewhat hard to see was a Tosevite face.

"They sent a Tosevite to talk to me." hissed Atvar in annoyance. "Couldn't even send a true Tau'ri instead they send a subject race."

"Exulted Fleet Lord this tells us a lot." Countered Ttomalass "It shows that they put a lot of trust in their subject races."

"Maybe even enough to let them be infantry males." added Drefsab as he eyed both soldiers. "They appear to be not only very similar in size and shape as the Tosevite could it be that they are actually Tosevites."

"Then their emperor is a fool, would we entrust the safety of the Empire and the Race to the less civilized and cultured sword swing savages?" inquired Atvar before giving the negative gesture "No we wouldn't, but now let's go contact the Tosevite subjects of the Tau'ri empire."

Across the docking arm the three Tau'ri looked at the group of Race which floated in the hallway.

"They kind of look like a lizard who lost half his tail and chameleon eyes." said one of the marines.

"I wonder how they are able to focus with two eyes that are able to consider two different directions at once." Inquired the other marine.

"Some animals can do that." added the first marine "But why are they naked?"

"A race of nudists?" inquired the second marine.

"We shall see." Said the diplomat as they moved forward. To the amazement of the Race, they walked across the airlock and came to a stop a few feet away from the group of three alien lizards which had another two-armed lizards right behind them and even more behind them.

"Hello, I am Camile Wray Senior Under Minister of the Department of Foreign affairs of the Tau'ri government." greeted the former member of the Destiny crew to this small reptilian alien before her. The alien ran his eyes up and down her, in different directions at once which unnatural her. For the longest time, the alien said nothing. "I hope that the translator program in my helmet is working properly."

"It is working fine." countered the Alien to the main one's right. All of them wore body paint with different types of patterns and colors. "However as Fleet Lord, you should have shown him proper respect and allowed him first word."

"I do apologize for any displeasure you have had however our cultures are meeting for the first time. There is bond to be some misunderstandings." countered Camile "I will however point out that it was you who came to our system not the other way around."

"We came to conquer you Tosevites." Said the male in the center, the Fleet Lord. "It appears that the Tau'ri beat us too it."

Camile smiled a bit which caused the members of the Race to look at her in a way that made her believe they were confused.

"Now, take us to your Emperor's viceroy or other leadership in the Tosev system." ordered Atvar to this lower level lackey who was below him in rank. He wasn't about to show respect to a minor aid sent by the Tau'ri who was Tosivite. He would save his manners for the actual Tau'ri not a subject race.

"Our ship will take you and your party to our leadership on Earth." explained Camile as she turned her body and extended her hand to gestured the lizards toward the Condor. The lizards floated through space while the Tau'ri walked.

Atvar was more than disappointed when he entered the shuttle craft, a Condor they called it. There was very large seats that where clearly not designed for him or the race. That he could understand, they hadn't just made contact with each other but there was no other kind of chairs either. All the chairs seamed to designed for Tosevite there was no clear separation on the flight that would mark seats for Tau'ri and those for Tosevites. On a shuttle craft for the race on any of the subject worlds they would have a special area on some of the shuttle crafts as well as normal public transport which would have seats just for the subject races. Those areas would always be in the back part of the transport but here all the seats where the same.

His disappointment was only added too when he saw that the only other figure on the craft was another Tosevite. The four other members of the Race came onboard and took seats, Atvar would have sat by the window however he allowed Desefv and one of the soldiers/intelligence officers sit in the window seats. The Tosivites boarded and sealed the craft with a hiss of air. Atvar was hissing in frustration at the poorly designed seats when they began to pull away from the banner ship, the seats where not designed to fit them. In the Empire everything was designed to best serve the Race, to have something not work best for them was automatically badly designed to them.

"Praise the spirits of Emperors past that we can float those seats are even badly designed in zero gravity I would hate sitting down in one without a way to not sit on my tail stump." Said one of the soldiers as suddenly and to every one of the Race's amazement they began to feel the pull of gravity. A slight panic came over the members of the race as they were pushed down into their seats and where no longer capable of floating. It wasn't even micro gravity which could be active by spinning the craft at a high rate no this was full gravity.

"By the emperor." said Drefsab as he got out of his seat and stood on the floor of the transport. "I feel as if I am on Home?"

"Artificial gravity plates." explained the Tosevite as the members of the Race looked at the Tosevites with a mix of wonderment and hate, they were waiting to meet the Tau'ri not these Tosevites which where only a subject race and below the Race in standing.

 **The Tau'ri Alliance Vessel (TAV) Key West moved toward the Race's home world called Home, from the view of the Tau'ri on board the ship it looked like one of the last places any human would want to go yet alone live.** Lots of deserts including some which made Death Valley look cool in comparison. The Akula class ship stayed near the lifeless world which occupied the next orbit out from Home with its cloak on it was totally invisible to any sensor of the Race, however with the cloak on it didn't have any shields to protect the ship. The main reason why the Akula didn't move forward was because there was just so much ship traffic moving around the planet. Almost no spot was clear for any long piece of time, multiple shuttle crafts and satellites moved back and forth in orbit with larger ships and space stations beyond them. Even the poles which are generally where clear was full of ships. In total, nearly a thousand ships where all gathered over the North and South pole and they appeared to be getting ready to launch.

"Have we spotting any signs of defensive stations or warships?" inquired the Captain of the Key West

"No sir, no sign of anything which looks like active military." explained the sensor operator "The only things which we have been able to spot from our current locations looks to be a museum. We could likely conquer this system by ourselves if we wanted."

"I would rather not call that place home." countered the Captain "I am going to assume that is a colonization fleet?"

"Yes, sir." confirmed the second officer. "From intercepts, it looks like they are scheduled to launch for Earth in a week, it will take them 17 years to reach Earth at their likely speed. The news reports say they are going to hold a ceremony by their emperor in a couple of hours to send the Fleet on its way. Then they will begin officially boarding the ships to head to in their own words bring civilization to a new world."

"Contact Admiral Hackett." ordered the Captain as he thought about what would be the best move. "Maybe a quick visit by the 7th fleet before they launch that fleet, I for one wouldn't want to go hunting down a fleet in the middle of the void."

"It would be better for everyone if they knew Earth was off limits before they launched that fleet." Agreed the second officer. "Their conquest fleet is already an issue."

"We can tow them back to their home with ease." Countered the Captain "It would take a while to move all the ships but it could be down easily enough. We will let the high command decide what to do until then we will monitor the situation."

"Sir, we do have a recon team on board." offered the second officer as the Captain placed his hand under his chin.

"No, I think not." said the Captain "We wouldn't gain enough information from putting boots on the ground. This isn't a world they have recently conquered and where they may be resistance. No, we will monitor from a distance."

 **When they stepped off the train, it was clear to the two colonial women that they were in a solemn place.** They along with Robert walked down the stairs which lead up to the raised train platform and found themselves in a large parking lot. Acacia turned her attention toward Robert who had a look of slight pain from the memories on his face. Together the three of them walked through the parking lot toward the park filled with trees. They walked down a well light path however instead of having lights shinning on them from post all the light came from small sources around the path. Suddenly the two-colonial woman stopped as they saw the wall before them. It was made from white marble which towered over twenty feet into the air. It was light from below casting light up on it's frame, standing on either side of the entrees cut where two large stone wolves, the animal symbol adopted by the Tau'ri. To the side of the wolves stood two Tau'ri guards however they were not in the standard army uniforms that Acacia had seen Robert in. These men were dressed in black with white highlights in the form of gloves and the like. They whore no sign of ranks and they stood at perfect attention with long rifles that neither of the colonials had seen the Tau'ri use before. Each rifle was tipped with a bayonet which stood out even more. Above the entrees it read. "On November 7th 2020 at 9:38 am 516,103 was lost their lives in Nuclear Fire, this is their Graveyard"

"Honor guard, special unit special uniform." explained Robert as the three of them passed between the two guards. The two guards said nothing and instead let the three of them enter the memorial. The path led up to a large clearing where a towering bronze statue stood, it showed a group of 14 men and women raising a Tau'ri flag pole back into position. The flag which flew from the top was an actual flag not made of bronze but the rest was made in such detail. Acacia and Medea moved around the memorial looking at the statue.

"Flag raising after the strike." read Acacia from a display as she noticed Robert was standing looking up at the statue, he was looking at one of the statues among the group. It was hard to really tell the difference between the man and women in Tau'ri armor with helmets on but she saw the name tag on the statue, R. Lefeld. "You?"

"Yes along with members of the 101st and Chinese's 15th Airborne units." said Robert with a haunted tone in his voice as he remembered that day. "We were airborne testing out the Pelican transport when the attack happened and we decided to jump over Disney World to see who we can save. I don't really know who's idea was it was to raise the flag which had fallen in the entrees but when I saw two of my fellow Tau'ri struggling to get this fallen flag pole down. I moved over to help and found myself in that famous photo with us raising the flag with the mushroom cloud still rising in the background."

"The names in the wall are the name of the dead?" inquired Medea as Acacia turned and noticed that the inside of the wall which surrounded the park had names engraved and emboldened in gold which popped in the light.

"Yes, their names and ages." explained Robert as they moved down the path.

"How many statues are there?" inquired Acacia

"Seven with a center area where the tree of remembrance is for a total of Eight, however some are not yet filled." answered Robert as they moved toward the next statue area. The path curved with the wall of names on one side with the woods on the other. It was as if there was no nearby city, this place as quiet as a graveyard which it was. The next statue didn't stand as tall as the main on by the entrees but in some way it was even more powerful.

It was white marble which showed a Tau'ri solider, holding a little girl covered in blood in his arms. A heartbreaking scream of pure pain and sadness was forever carved in stone, here the Tau'ri didn't have a full-face helmet allowing everyone to see his safe as he held the little girl close but that scream of pain frozen forever in stone was haunting in the soft lights which had turned on after dark. The three of them where not alone there were other people but not many and everyone was showing nothing but respect to what was around them.

 **Atvar had one of his eyes turrets looking out the window at all time as the other scanned the area and studied the Tosevites before him.** The Tau'ri empire which had assimilated them must have placed a lot of faith in their recently conquered races to allow them to be armed in any real way. Among the Race the Rabotevs and Hallessi which had been conquered for thousands of years where allowed to have job within local government but when it came to actual power those jobs where blocked to them. They could be clerks and the like, but Province Lord and even police officers where not something they could do, however these Tau'ri had entrusted the Tosevites to be not only soldiers but first ones to great a new and powerful neighbor like they were. That said a lot to Atvar about how this empire acted, it clearly had no real leadership and with no leadership came no planning and no planning meant they could be beaten with proper planning. He was just thinking about that when the voice of the pilot came out of speakers on the ceiling.

"We are now passing Mars." said the pilot voice as Atvar wondered what Mars was, then he saw it through the window. A blue green world with a massive ocean at the Northern pole that went down almost to a third of the way to the equator. A larger land mass on the equator and bottom half of the planet. That was clearly not Tosev 3 but it had to be no other habitual world was in the Tosev system.

"Excuses me." hissed Ttomalass as the Tosevite greater turned his head to look at him. "Yes, what is this Mars? It clearly isn't Tosev 3."

"Mars is the name of the planet you would know as Tosev 4." answered the Tosevite "We have terra formed it and the 2nd planet in the system, Venus so that all three can support life without the need for any extra equipment."

That caused both of Atvar's eyes turrets to snap toward the window, that was Tosev 4, 1800 years ago when the probe sent back its data showing the sword swinging Tosevites that was a lifeless red rock and Tosev 2 was not much better maybe even worse with the dense atmosphere. If both had been transformed in such a short time as 1800 years it was an achievement that no one back on home would believe possible. The planning alone for something similar in scale would be just as long if not longer than 1800 years and they would need to develop the technology to do such a thing in the 1st place.

"By the Emperor." Said one of the males as they saw massive amounts of light coming from the dark side of the planet as they moved past it toward Tosev 3.

"Three worlds there are three worlds here Exulted Fleet Lord, three whole worlds that are already fully colonized." stated Drefsab as they passed by another one of those defense stations as they neared Tosev 3. "If these Tau'ri have three worlds here alone they have at least 4 counting their real home plus any other worlds they conquered before they came to the Tosev system."

"They at least equal our Empire in size and likely surpasses it." confirmed Atvar with an angry hiss, he had just learned that this empire was not only a higher technological scale then the Empire but matched at least in size of their empire. He wondered for a moment how long the Tau'ri empire had been around, it had to be multiple thousands of years to be the size he knew they were at.

"We are coming up on Earth." Said the pilot as Atvar and the others turned their eye turrets toward the window to see Tosev 3. They were coming up on the dark side of the greater continental mass, once again his eyes widened as they saw the massive amounts of lights coming from cities. It was also strange unlike on home where cities where mostly inland away from the few small seas and lakes here the Tau'ri had built their cities on near the coast. "We are over North America will be landing in Gibraltar in a few minutes."

"Gibraltar? Is that where the Tau'ri world capital and governmental centers at on Tosev 3 are?" inquired Ttomalass

"Yes and no." answered the guided "We are currently building our capital there but it will be moved when it is finished."

That caused the males of the Race to look at each other in confusion as they wondered if the computer program translating these Tosevites words wasn't in error. The Condor bounced a bit as it entered the atmosphere over the black sea and began its approach toward the runway on the still unfinished capital city. The pilot received and got the go ahead to do a flyby of the city to show their guests and it didn't disappoint.

"Spirits of Emperors past look at that." exclaimed the other intelligence officer as a city came into view. On land, the city was amazing but what stood out was the city rising from the middle of a bay which opened to the sea. It took up a the bulk of the bay, with six arms shooting off from a major central hub. On one arm was a group of low buildings while on another arm sat more buildings along with an open green space with a single building in the center. Tall thin towers shot up some of them only halfway finished. Only a few wide roads where visible and in the heart of it all rising from the center hub was a large doomed building that reached up toward the sky from an octagon base. A lot of the buildings seemed to be made with metal which shinned in the light from the star Tosev with large glass windows. Walkways connected buildings where visible as well as above the surface trains, a military base took up almost a quarter of one arm with a large amount of black painted killer crafts sitting on runways. They heard the landing gear come down as the Condor lined up to make it's landing on the civilian air/space port which took up an equal amount of space as the military base but on a different arm.

The condor landed smoothly before taxing past the normal unloading part to a special area which would allow the visiting members of the Race to exit the aircraft with a straight view down one of the main boulevard which lead toward the Southern entrees of the Tau'ri council building. When the door opened a blast of chilly air reached the members of the Race. It was mid-November on Earth so Gibraltar's average temperature was just about 60F/17C, the temperatures was perfectly fine for the Tosevites but to the Race it was equal to a very bad winter weather back on home.

The Race moved off the aircraft as their eye turrets moved in every direction they possibly could as they took in the city rising before them. It was very different than any of the cities back on home, each one of the buildings from home was designed basically the same. The same cube shape for private homes, the tall rectangle shape for apartment complexes, the same long and low rectangle for factories and so on. Even sky scrapers where all basically the same and went to the same height and had the same lay out inside. Not here each building was unique in some way, the skyline was not uniform, some of the buildings had pointed spires on top while others had flat tops. None of them where really the same. Aside from the buildings the road was strangely clear with most traffic seaming to move on the raised high-speed trains which were visible to the eye turret. The other thing that stood out was that everyone that the Race could see was a Tosevite there was of yet no Tau'ri that they could see.

"Where are your leader?" inquired Atvar

"They will meet you in the Governmental building we call the Tau'ri Congress." explained the aid pointing to the domed building in the center of the city. "We can walk there or we can get a transport, which do you prefer?"

"We will walk." ordered Atvar, in truth he would rather had taken a vehicle but walking would allow them more time to study the Tau'ri and their Tosevites subjects so walking it would be. Even as he hated the distance he would have to go to get there.

 **The 7** **th** **Fleet was the teeth of the Tau'ri military force in the Milky Way galaxy, it was the largest almost double the size of any of the other fleets aside from the 9** **th** **which equaled it in size and power.** The 9th fleet however was the teeth of the Tau'ri forces in the Pegasus galaxy with the 8th protecting Atlantis. They would have no role in the upcoming issues facing the Tau'ri. Standing on board the Flag Ship of the 7th Fleet the TAV Missouri was the Admiral in command of the entire force Admiral Hackett. He was an older man dressed in his dark navy-blue day uniform with golden bars on his shoulders and collars marking him as a high-ranking officer.

"Sir, we have gotten a message from the Key West they are monitoring the situation on home and it appears that their colonization fleet is preparing to leave." reported the second officer. "We also have reports from the Jin and the Le Temeraire both over the worlds of Halless 1 and Rabotev 2 they don't report anything of note and no sign of any resistance."

"What about their last world, this Vantic 5?" inquired Admiral Hackett

"The TAV Spartan reports that they have entered the system and intercepted news reports confirm that there is terrorist or as we would call it resistance activity on the surface of Vantic 5. A lot of it in fact, multiple reports of riots in major cities along with armed resistance. It is hard to tell what the riots are really about, something about banning some type of food." Reported the second officer "They request permission to put recon teams on the ground to get a ground view of the situation."

"It would be hard to get a fair view of the situation on the planet from only the news broadcasts coming from the Race, no we need independent intelligence." said Hackett "Green light for recon but no contact unless fired upon."

"Yes, sir." confirmed the second officer as Hackett moved toward his situation map. The holographic map showed the ships under his command, the fleet was spread out into multiple different task groups not all gathered as a single large force. Still in his personal task group he had four battleships and two carriers plus half dozen cruisers and a dozen destroyers. If he was ordered to he could fight a war all on his own and with the amount of fire power under his command he could likely win and if waited for the rest of the fleet to gather he would win. He turned his attention away from Vantic to the situation on the Race's home world. If that colonization fleet left it would cause a major headache getting them back home. It was time to put on a show for this Race on their own home world and he knew how he wanted to do it. He only had to sell it to high command.

 **Darkness had full engulfed Valhalla as Robert, Acacia and Medea moved through the Valhalla War Memorial.** The memorial was set up like a wagon wheel with an outer wall with seven spots open for statues and a center area where the tree of remembrance given to the Tau'ri as a gift by the Nox was located. Paths connected each of the statues areas and the tree in the center.

"Are you feeling as guilty as I am?" inquired Medea to her best friend as the three of them walked down the path. Robert being a Tau'ri didn't have the same guilt that the two Colonials had but he carried the memories of being there and seeing the blast.

Some of the memorials where simple while others where more complex each hit in a different way. One was a mound of rubble with statues of men and women, Israeli and Palestinians Robert called them which meant little to the colonials pulling people from the rubble. One was as a gathering of statues all of them children playing a game called Soccer Robert explained to them. At first, they didn't understand it then he explained that it was from a photo taken seconds before the flash. None of the children had lived but their ghostly statues now stood in remembrance. There were others too, memorials to the bravery of the Tau'ri in the war but they didn't hit the Colonials as hard.

"Yes." admitted Acacia as they turned the corner and both stopped and looked out in confusion. There was rubble there, rubble like a side of concrete or a large piece of stone. Some wood like from a house and other items just spread out over the area, each of them contained in see through containers. Robert moved up to one of them and stopped, the two women moved up to him.

"What is this?" inquired Acacia as Robert looked down at the clear protection. Acacia and Medea followed Robert's eyes and they saw that the protection was for a piece of roadway which had been cut away. On that piece of roadway was the shadowy image of a humanoid figure.

"They call this area Shadows." explained Robert as both women looked around, each of the pieces of what they thought was rubble had the shadowy after image of a person which had been burned into the material by the heat from the nuclear blast.

"By the Lords of Kobol." whispered Acacia as she looked at the ghostly afterimage of human beings.

"Jesus Christ." answered Robert with a sad laugh as he crossed himself and lowered his head slightly. A couple of moments later he raised his head back up and crossed himself again. He wasn't the only one doing so while others were doing different things like placing candles before the shadows. They moved from Shadow to Shadow each one was slightly different but just as heart breaking. Robert turned to head down the center path to the tree of remembrance and Acacia was about to follow him when Medea grabbed her by the hand.

"That only six statue areas isn't it?" stated Medea as Acacia thought about it for a moment.

"Yes." Confirmed Acacia after a couple of moments of thought, before looking down the path which would lead to the last statue.

"Maybe it is another empty spot." offered Medea

"Maybe." said Acacia as she headed down the path. Like all the others it was curved so that the statue was out of sight from the other statue groups. Her eyes widened as she saw what was waiting around the bend. There sitting on a slightly raised pad was a Colonial Pallas Tank, the tank which the Colonials had believed to be the best of armor and weapons until the Tau'ri smashed it was itself smashed. It had clearly been destroyed by some tank round going into it. The side was a mess and the barrel of its massive main gun was pointed to the side and down. The wreckage was twisted and scorched by fire, bullet holes where clearly visible and standing on top of the tank was a statue. A statue of a Tau'ri solider, a woman by the looks of it. She held her arm high along with her gun in a cry of victory, a victory over her people.

"I didn't want you to see this statue." said Robert behind her.

"So you built a monument to defeating us?" inquired Acacia

"I didn't but that is based off a photo taken at the end of the war, I believe it won a lot awards and so it was chosen to come in here to show the end of the war that started when the bomb went off over the lake." Explained Robert as he tried to defend the statue and smooth over his girlfriend's feelings. "This is a memorial not only to the attack but to the war. The end of the war is part of that."

He waited, he waited for Acacia to get really upset only instead she lowered her head in resigned acceptance of the fact that as much as it hurt her to show the defeat of her worlds she had to admit Robert had a point. She didn't turn to look at the statue instead she headed down the center path which lead to the Tree of remembrance.

She couldn't see the tree earlier because of other trees in the way but when she saw it, it took her breath away. It was around 60 ft. tall with pure silver leaves and bark as white as snow ran up and down its narrow center. Flanking it on either side of the tree were two twisted remains of massive trains. One facing north the other facing south, both of them where twisted metal but yet somewhat beautiful in a way. Around it area stood Tau'ri honor guards with candles burning, some of them where preminate in nature while others had been left behind by people. Two small shrines where located to the East and West both of them open for anyone to worship as they pleased. Acacia walked up to one of them and saw a row of candles, some of them where lite others where not. A woman in front of her picked up a small thin stiff rode and lite one of them on fire before bowing her head. She walked away as Acacia walked up to the candles. She picked up the rode and placed it into the flames of a nearby candle before lighting one of the candles.

"May the Lords of Kobol or whatever is waiting on the other side take your souls into their arms and protect and look after you." prayed Acacia "May you rest in peace."

 **Fleet Lord Straha hissed in anger and frustration at the news reports which were coming across every news channel on Vantic 5.** They kept showing the same images, riots in the streets and the natives even those in areas that according to the experts said was more inclined to make themselves like the Race.

"All this because of some stupid food?" inquired Straha to himself and a nearby aid who stood waiting to do whatever he requested of him.

"Exulted fleet Lord it would appear that this little piece of meat is actually the corner stone of their diet." stated his aid

"They have access to truly good food like Azwaca and other animals from home." countered Straha "They shouldn't go hungry."

"No they shouldn't exulted fleet lord however it is park of some traditional meal that their local superstition declares they must have every 15 days." explained his aid. "A meal that they must share with their family units."

"Family units, what a pointless waste of time which is a pain under our scales." hissed Straha "We need to break them of this idea that blood ties and who you mate with matters outside of the line of the emperor."

Straha cast his eyes down as his thoughts turned to an idea to break the Vantic of their foolish idea called a family, it was rejected by Atvar because it would cause major problems with the local population in the short run. Atvar took a long view allowing these primitives too to keep their idea of a family and to cut it out so slowly that they would never notice. Because of that he had this slow bleeding wound of terrorism on the society they were building. It was time to cut it all out at once and fight through the pain of the social disruption it would cause. Straha moved toward his desk and pulled up the proposed plan on his computer, the plan had been rejected by Atvar now in his eyes it looked like a worthwhile plan.

"I want an updated version of this plan on my desk tomorrow." ordered Straha as his aid's eye turrets widened a bit.

"My apologies Exulted Fleet lord but the experts predicted that doing that would cause major problems with the Vantics." explained the aid as Straha turned an eye turret up to the TV screens which showed all the riots.

"Taking away their children all of their children to be properly raised to be like the Race will cause riots, but we already have riots." countered Straha "It can't get much worse and once we weather the sandstorm it will be done and it will be all for the best, no waiting for generations for them to civilized. They will be so within one. Better to close a wound even if painful then let it keep bleeding."

"It shall be done." said the aid he knew how the planners would hiss in anger at the idea of getting all this done in the time frame but Straha always rushed into things and he did have a point better to get it over with even though it will be painful. Once the young where taken away from their families and raised in the ways of civilization in the ways of the Race, they would be full and thankful citizens of the Empire.

 **President Elect Samantha Carter along with other high-level dignitaries both military and civilian awaited the arrival of the Fleet Lord Atvar and the other members of the Race Delegation.** They had been getting multiple updates about their movement through the half-finished city. Sam was amazed about how fast the city was going up, that was mostly because of the Asgard technology which could make raw material such as trash and reform the atoms into anything they wanted. They had used that to turn trash into raw material for the war machine against the Colonies and they still used it today as a form to recycle. It wasn't prefect, the time needed to create something depended on the complexity of the item. Something like with computer bards took hours to make one while a piece of advanced composite metal took seconds and the entire city was going to be wired so it was impractical to use the city. It was decided that it would be more cost effective to use the technology to make the raw material and then have humans take up the process of finishing the material.

Carter turned her attention away from the city rising outside of the rotunda of the Tau'ri congress to the Rotunda itself. It was massive in size and scale just like the whole building itself. It was so large in fact that the over half of the entire Capital Building of the United States could fit inside the walls of the rotunda itself and still have space to spare. In the center of the was a perfectly recreated but fake Stargate that could be beamed out and replaced with the real one if needed to welcome important people. The rotunda was so large that there was a second floor which wrapped around the area, that was held up by multiple arches, in between the arches where differ ent statues of some of the greatest man and women in human history both on Earth and Lanagara. Most of the statues where made from either bronzes, marble, granite or other stones. Along the back walls where different paintings from some of the best in human history on display in either their original form or as a copy.

There was more statues and paintings, which lined the four main entrees and exits into the rotunda, each one was themed to different parts of human achievements. One entrees was assigned to the Sciences here one would find statues of great scientist/thinkers like Benjamin Franklin and Albert Einstein. Across the way from it was the entrees for to the arts where painters and writers ranging from William Shakespeare, Vincent Van Gogh, the Poet Lance Quoin from Lanagara and everyone in between could be found. The other hallway was for the great political and social figures such as Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, Abraham Lincoln, Mother Teresa and others where there. The last entrees had statues from great military and heroic man and women in history, statues of George Washington, Alexander the Great, Admiral Yi and Julius Caesar along with others could be found there. There was at least one statue/painting in each of the area from each nation in the Tau'ri alliance plus additional statues/paintings from Lanagara and they could and would be changed out over time.

"Here they come." said Daniel as he stood beside her as Sam turned her attention toward the science entrees as a group of what looked to be lizards who walked on two legs and stood as tall as a 12-year-old headed toward them. Two of them where armed but they were flanked by two armed Tau'ri guards themselves and more guards stood ready to respond if need be. The other three where not armed outside of claws on their hands and needle like teeth in their mouths. Their eyes could move independently and all of them looked around the room before coming to lock on the delegation gathered in front of them.

They came to a stop as Carter stepped forward, she had like all the other Tau'ri had small ear pieces which allowed her to understand what these members of the Race where saying.

"Still no sign of these Tau'ri, all I see is more of the Tosevite subjects. Exulted Fleet Lord, I feel we are being lead around by the snout." Said the one on the left of the one in the center. He had the least amount of body paint on him and from everything she knew that meant he was of the lowest ranking.

"Some of these appear slightly different." Said the one to the right of the one in the middle, as his eyes ran up and down Sam and Daniel, one on each. "The one in the center with the longer fur on the top of his head has fleshly mounds on his chest, could the Tau'ri be so like their Tosevite subject that it is hard to tell the difference."

"Possibly." admitted the one on the left.

"No, we are the same species." explained Carter as a Tau'ri with a helmet capable of speaking in the language of the Race translated for her. "I and the others with these fleshly mounds as you call them are women, we are females."

"Ah…of course they would have to be some differences between the sexes but still it is hard to tell them apart from males, it isn't like with us where something as clear as scale patterns and tail length that can be seen with a single glance of the eye turret to determine a female from a male." Said the one on the left.

"This is getting us no were." hissed the male in the center before turning both eye turrets on Sam. "I am Fleet Lord Atvar of the Race, I am here to talk to the Leaders of the Tau'ri about the situation. Now I demand to see the Viceroy the emperor of the Tau'ri sent when they conquered you Tosevites."

"Fleet Lord Atvar, I am President Samantha Carter." Said Sam, it was mostly true. She would be officially sworn in in two weeks and since she was the 1st Tau'ri president she had basically been given Presidential power even though she wasn't officially the President yet. "I am afraid you don't understand, Tosevites as you call us is the same thing as a Tau'ri."

"Yes, yes." Confirmed Atvar as he moved his hand in something that must have passed as a nod. "You Tosevites are citizens of the Tau'ri Empire but I demand to speak to the Tau'ri Viceroy whatever your Emperor sent to govern you Tosevites when they conquered you."

Sam smiled slightly it was time to drop the facts on them.

"Once again Fleet Lord, you do not understand We are Tau'ri, this is the home world of the Tau'ri. Tosevite and Tau'ri are the same species." said Samantha as the members of the race looked at her, in what she imaged to be a look of surprise and confusion. "We were never Conquered, we are Tau'ri."

 **Well I hope you liked this chapter, I would like to thank everyone who reviewed and I hope you keep on reading. Thanks Wilkins75.**


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7 World Turned Upside Down**

Atvar titled his head slightly as he looked at this Tosevite female, this female who seemed to hold a position of high authority over the other Tosevites including the infantry males. A female holding a military position was unheard of in the Race, having a female on the battlefield would have caused nothing but trouble. It wasn't that they would cause an issue most of the time, however whenever they entered the mating season which they had no control over the smell of their pheromone would cause males to want to mate with them. That would cause something but problems on the battlefield, he briefly wondered if the Tosevites just dealt with the issues of a breading system that would be foolish but so was the claim this female was giving.

She was claiming that the Tosevites where never conquered and that they were the Tau'ri, that was clearly a bold face lie. To even attempt to pass such an idea that sword swing savages could advance to a level of technology which was beyond even the Race, which was the most advanced and cultured civilization in the galaxy was laughable. To make it even more laughable they claimed to have done it in 1800 years or 900 local years. In truth, he knew it was slightly longer than 1800 years, two years at home was just a couple of factions shorter than a year on Tosev 3. Still even if they advanced at the fast rate the planners believed possible they may have gone from sword swinging savages to sword swinging savages with better metal in the swords. It was so funny that Atvar opened his mouth and showed his rows of sharp teeth, in laugh of the Race.

Seeing his laugh, the other members of the race joined in his laughter even as the Tosevites showed some uneasiness at the sight of all of them showing their needle like teeth.

"Very funny." said Atvar as this Tosevite female looked at him. "Very funny joke, however we are beyond jokes and I demand to see the Viceroy that the Emperor of the Tau'ri placed over you Tosevites."

"This is no joke." repeated Sam "Look around Fleet Lord, did you see anyone who isn't a human or as you would call us Tosevite when you came from the space port? Do you see any statues in our halls which are not of a Tosevite? Do you believe we would set all this up as part of some joke? We are Tau'ri, Tosev 3 was never conquered and the sword swinging savages you were expecting are not what you find."

"What you claim, by the very laws of the universe is unbelievable." said Ttomalass "Society changes slowly, over graduate well planned steps and the changes you claim is impossible in such a short eye blink of time."

"It may be short to you but to us 900 years is a very long time." countered Carter "It was only within the life time of some of our older citizens that we first walked upon the moon and now we have advanced with help from our allies from across the universe that we have advanced to where we are now. We were never conquered, we are not lying to you. You are facing the Tau'ri right now and this world Earth is the Capital of a civilization that spreads out over 5 fully populated worlds with over a hundred outposts and military bases spread out across this galaxy and beyond."

"Once again you try to lie." stated Derfsab "Outposts across the Galaxy? You couldn't have travel between edges of the galaxy in such a short amount of time and to hear back from them would take millions of years."

"If you travel at just under half the speed of light which seems to be your max speed, yes." confirmed Carter "However we use hyperspace technology that allows us to travel much faster than light and with our system we can cross the galaxy in a couple of days and send messages through hyperspace using broadcast stations spread out across the galaxy."

"If that we true then you would have discovered us a long time ago." hissed Derfsab "Once again your lie is made so clear that a hatching still wet from the egg could see it."

"In truth, we should have found your worlds however none of the worlds was of any interest to us. From what we have learned of your worlds, too hot for our liking." Explained Carter "We are a race of explores and dreamers. We look over the next horizon and the with our hyper drive technology your worlds are so close they didn't seem that interesting. We also only a year ago finished a war with another civilization so our attention was focused on them for a while. That allowed you to go undiscovered until you were at our door. Now we need to decide what the next step will be."

"What you claim flies in the face of everything we know." admitted Atvar as he looked around at all the different statues and technology around him. "It is hard to understand such claims, even so the with the evidence before me I can't refute the claim with what I have before me. I still need to discuss the situation with your Emperor."

"Fleet Lord, we have no Emperor." added Carter, that was again a semi truth. There was still royal families in some nations but they were now more symbolic then what they had once been before.

"No Emperor?" inquired Atvar, that claim seamed to upset the Race more than the fact that the Tau'ri where in fact Tosevites.

"Do you have an Empress?" inquired Ttomalass as the other members of the Race looked at him. "One of the Empires on Hallessi One was ruled by an Empress instead of an Emperor."

"Very well…do you have an Empress?" inquired Atvar as he remembered the kinship rulers of Vantic 5. "Or maybe your rulers are based on blood kinship lines called families?"

"No, we have no Emperor or Empress, we have no family lines ruling us either." explained Sam "We are a representative democracy, where the people vote to decide who will rule us for a time before another is elected to hold that office. I am honored to hold the highest of the office President of the Tau'ri."

Carter had been elected in an election where no one ran against her so she was elected with no real challenge, she would likely not have to face a challenger when she ran again in a few years. After her two terms were up, then the real challenge would begin. The electoral system was set up to have a lot of candidates running for President or other office, so the system was set up in what was called an Alternative Vote or Instant Run Off. Basically, when a voter went to vote they would select in order their top 5 candidates in order of the one they wanted to hold the office. Once the votes were cast the bottom candidate was dropped off and their voter's votes would go to their second choice. This would go on until someone broke 51%. It was a new system to some in the Tau'ri but they were getting used to it.

To the race, who had always known an Emperor ruling them the idea of a different form of government was unsettling on the deepest levels. Even in the distance days when the Empire was limited to only part of home, they had fought against other Empires. In their mind, there was no other way to organize intelligent species, anything else was just beyond them. The only thing that came to their mind was an insult.

"Snout counters, they are snout counters." Hissed Ttomalass with hate in his voice, snout counting was something only used in very rare situation where someone of higher authority couldn't be found to clear up the issue. "Exulted Fleet Lord, they are snout counters."

"There is no way a society could reach any form of greatness by counting each other's snouts." Countered Derfsab

"And yet we have." added Carter through her translator. "We have reached levels beyond what you believed to be possible and we are still advancing. Under the treaty signed by the great powers in the galaxy, we control 20% of the galaxy."

"Great powers? How many powers in the Galaxy are there?" inquired Derfsab as he went digging for information.

"Some would argue how great some of the powers are, but in total 63." Answered Carter "Some of them only control two or three worlds while others have whole reigns of space under their control. Only about 18 of them are real powers and of them we have the largest percentage of the Galaxy under our control."

"And how could this conference of great powers be a true conference of great powers without us?" inquired Atvar "We are the Race."

"Part of the requirements for being in the treaty is to have faster than light technology which you don't have." Explained Carter, once again it was a semi lie. There was a second option to have a stargate and know how to use it. That allowed a lot more than 63 powers to take part in the treaty but most of them where tiny worlds which where atomically given control over their own world and left almost at once leaving on 63 real players. Even most of those smaller powers where basically under the protection of whatever main power controlled the area of space around them. They were basically like San Marino or Vatican City on Earth which is a nation surrounded by Italy only an planet size scale. "As such you had no part in the treaty."

"Then the Emperor will hold another conference of Great Powers to settle the new borders." stated Atvar

"No." stated Carter as Atvar was taken aback, no one should say no to the Fleet Lord the only correct answer should be it shall be done. "You don't have the authority to call such a meeting, you are a pre-faster than light society and as such you fall under a special category in the treaty, until you develop long range FTL capabilities then you can't call for a conference."

"You are telling the Fleet Lord, kin male of Emperor, chosen by his hand no? He speaks for the Emperor himself." inquired Derfsab "Who are you to do so?"

"I am President of the Tau'ri Alliance, which makes me equal in standing to your Emperor." Explained Carter as the Race hissed and anger as their tail stumps moved back and forth in anger. "I am the leader of the Tau'ri, your Emperor is the Leader of your people. That makes us equal."

"No one is equal to the Emperor." hissed Atvar as he cast his eyes down for a moment. "He is the one who will judge all our souls in the afterlife, none can rejoice in the world to come who do not know his name. To even subjects such a foolish idea shows how savage and lacking of knowledge you are."

"Well we don't believe in him and in our society, everyone can believe in whatever faith they want." counted Carter

"Billions of souls on 4 worlds believe in the Emperor, what do you say to that?" asked Atvar as what Carter thought was possibly a grin, however it was hard to tell given how little express they showed.

"And countless trillions of souls spread across this galaxy and all the other galaxies with their trillions of souls don't believe in him." countered Carter "None of that matters, you are here and now we have to plan out the path we are going to take."

"Simple, you will surrender to us." Offered Atvar as the Tosevites made a barking sound.

"No." laughed Carter "You should consider yourself luckily, we could see this conquest fleet as an act of war allowing us to go to war with your Empire."

"And the Empire would win." hissed Ttomalass

"Your Empire would fall in less than a day, it would take us longer to actually move ships and troops into position because we have much bigger threats then you." corrected Carter

"Then we will make contact with them and join them in conquering them." threatened Atvar

"A waste of time, they would conquer you not make allies with you." explained Carter, the current situation in the Galaxy was clear, the Tau'ri was the most powerful however they didn't have as many ships as other powers. If a single Free Jaffa Nation or an Lucian Alliance Nation went after the Tau'ri they would lose, if they all went against the Tau'ri it would be a slug fest with the Tau'ri likely losing a long and bloody fight. "You should consider yourself luckily, if you had come into contact with another power you would have been blown out of the sky before your Empire fell."

"We are the Race our Empire will never fall." countered Atvar

"I bet the Romans said the same thing before they fell, the Ancients may have believed the same thing before the Wraith, a lot of other Empires and civilizations have felt the same as you but they have all fallen." Countered Carter "Now we need to move forward with the situation at hand, you control 4 worlds."

"How do you know that?" hissed Derfsab as the intelligence officer went digging for information.

"We have been gathering intelligence on you just like you have been on us." explained Sam before pulling out a computer pad. "For example, we know you have been taking long range photos of our ships all well and good and you are trying to fit that into a tactically outlook, we expected nothing less. We on the other hand have gained access to your computer network and learned much. This is how we are able to communicate back and forth we have a copy of your language for our translation programs."

"You spy on us." Hissed Derfsab in anger

"You came to invade us." countered Carter "That could be seen as an act of war."

"Language isn't the only thing we learned, we learned that you recently conquered a world called Vantic 5 in your records but you strangely do no have a race name for the people of that world or the Rabotevs or Hallessi." explained Daniel as he tried to change the subject. "You named them after what your race called their stars, like you want to call us Tosevites after what you named our sun. Strangely you didn't record the names that those species called themselves, you only call them by your name."

"Because that is all that matters, you are Tosevite not this Tau'ri name." countered Atvar

"Actually, our species name is human and our organized government is called the Tau'ri alliance but that is a minor issue." corrected Sam "If I am to be understood your Empire gave you orders to carry out this invasion and you have to follow it?"

"No, I have the right to call off the Conquest." admitted Atvar

"Good, I highly recommend you do so." advised Carter

"I will…delay the conquest until I am able to discuss the situation with my ship lords." said Atvar as if he was given the Tau'ri a great gift.

"Very well." said Carter "If you want you can contact them with our communication system or you can return to your ship and we can meet again at a time of your choosing."

"I will return to my fleet and we will meet again." hissed Atvar as the Race turned and headed out of the building. When they were gone Sam turned toward the men and woman around her.

"That could have gone better." stated Daniel

"Madam President." Said a military aid as he saluted Carter who returned the salute before taking the computer pad he was offering.

"Admiral Hackett is requesting permission to make official contact with the Race's home world before their colonization fleet moves out." reported Carter "He is also reports that this world Vantic 5 is in the middle of either a massive series of riots or full revolt. He is sending in recon teams to confirm the situation on the ground."

"Why should we worry about this Vantic 5, it is just some backwater world, not even a human world." said one of the Senators who had monitored the situation, before Carter could jump on him another Senator beat her to the punch.

"Because if these people aren't being represented in their government and are crying out for freedom then that is something we can't let that go." countered another Senator "And what does being human matter? They are a cultured intelligence species, that is all that matters."

"Agreed, but first let's let the recon team do its work." Said Sam before turning toward the military aid. "Inform Admiral Hackett I will need a little while to study his plan but I am likely going to approve it so he can move his ships to their jumping off points. I will call him in 90 minutes."

"Yes, Madame President." stated the aid as he snapped to attention.

"We can't force the Ship Lord to accept the truth, however if their Emperor orders them to stand down they will." explained Carter as she turned to Daniel who confirmed her statement with a nod of his head. "There for we will go to this Emperor."

 **Dr. Rush sat in front of his computer in his apartment in the heart of Celin, the Capital City of Valhalla has been claimed by the darkness of night and a state of semi stillness had fallen.** A city of this size never really slept but the streets had less cars on it and the trains running had less people on it. Most people were at home sleeping and in a couple of hours they would be waking up and getting ready for their day. Rush however was waiting for the right hour on Earth to make his phone call so he had to stay up. Not that he really minded, it allowed him time to look over the designs for both the Prometheus II and the Destiny II. Both ships while following the same basic outline had different designs to carry out their roles in the grand plan. The Destiny II which hadn't yet be constructed was the smaller of the ships even if it was four time the size of a Battleship.

It was designed to be built in sections which would be able to travel the massive distances between the super gate near the original Destiny and the new super gate they were going to make in another distance but much closer galaxy. The Second Destiny was going to be the most advanced ship the Tau'ri ever made, with every type of sensors and information gathering tools they had. It would be armed with five ancient beam cannons plus Asgard beam weapons and rail gun and drones. It would finish the mission of the 1st Destiny and solve the greatest mystery in the galaxy.

The Prometheus II was already being built and while much larger than any ship the Tau'ri have ever made being 7 size the size of a battleship and have just as many sensors and the information gathering tools it would in fact be less armed. What it had was something very special, instead of being as heavily armed it would in fact have less weapons but it would be able to bring a fleet with it. The Prometheus II had the single largest cargo bay every made, it would fit four battleships or carriers plus additional warships inside the larger ship. It would also carry all the pre made parts for the super gate inside and have docking bays which would allow two more battleships plus 12 Akula class stealth ships to dock on the outside and merge with the profile of the ship. In the end, the Prometheus wouldn't be as armed but it would be in fact carrying nothing short then a small fleet of warships along with it as protection.

Finally, it was time as Rush picked up the phone and made the call, the call was broadcasted up to a satellite which using subspace communication and a bunch of satellites allowed a phone to begin to ring on Earth in the Apple RND center on the new capital city. It was there that Apple and a bunch of other major companies had placed research centers to study ancient and Asgard technology to be used in the civilian market.

"Welcome to Apple RND information desk how can I help you?" said a woman as she appeared on the screen in front of Rush.

"Yes, can I talk to Mr. Eli Wallace." Said Rush as the woman tapped a few controls on her own computer pad. Rush knew that while officially Eli hadn't gone back to school, his skills in ancient technology had made him an instant want by every tech company on Earth. Apple won and he was making an annual salary that professional sports players make.

"And who may I say is calling?" inquired the woman

"Doctor Rush." answered Rush as the woman turned to another screen and talked, the video phone didn't pick up her voice but that was by design. When she turned back she still had a smile on her face but her eyes where warning.

"I am afraid Dr. Rush that Mr. Wallace doesn't want to speak to you, he is currently busy on multiple products." said the woman.

"Can you tell him I need to speak to him, I want his help…" started Rush only to have this glorified aid raise her hand to silence him.

"I am afraid Dr. Rush that Mr. Wallace doesn't want to speak to you and he has told me to inform you not to call again or he will get our lawyers involved and they will draft an order making to stop contacting him under penalty of law." said the woman "Now Good Day Doctor Rush."

With that the line went dead, as Rush cursed Eli under his breath. Eli like so many others from their time on Destiny had lost all the need to explore. The crew had all gone their own way and of those who knew about it none of them had shown any interest in going on this mission. With a sigh Rush turned off the computer and turned off the lights before heading to bed.

 **On Sagittarian, the arms dealer had returned to his base of operation, a large warehouse cut into the side of the mountain.** Since living land was limited on the mountainous Sagittarian it was common for warehouse to be cut into the side of mountains with whole buildings built on top of. The warehouse itself didn't stand out in the line of warehouse, it had a faded logo painted on the door of a major shipping company. In truth, the company didn't own the warehouse but no one passing by would have paid it any mind. The warehouse had multiple colonial military crates full of bolt action rifles and assault rifles, a small mountain of ammo sat in one corner of the warehouse. The truck backed up into the warehouse before closing behind it.

With that done the arms dealer put his money in a safe before making a late dinner, he had just sat down and turned on the TV when he noticed the headline.

"Terror cell terminated by Tau'ri Special forces, there was no survivors." said the reporter as he stood in front of a warehouse, a warehouse he had been only a short time ago. "Multiple military grade weapons have been recovered along with children bound in chains in a separate room."

"I am a luckily fraker, they are all dead so they can't tell the Tau'ri who I am." laughed the arms dealer as he went to bring a spoon full of soup into his mouth.

"But we already know." Said a voice from behind him as he felt a barrel of a gun on the back of his head. The arms dealer's mind was racing as he spotted a second and then a third Tau'ri all dressed for a fight out of the corner of his eyes. "We need to talk."

"I want my lawyer." Said the arms dealer

"Who said you are under arrest and that we are even here?" inquired the Tau'ri behind him with cockiness in his voice. "Now let us talk about where you are getting these weapons and what is this line on high explosives."

"Frak." cursed the arms dealer.

"Sir, I got our weapons he was talking about." said another Tau'ri as he entered the room carrying a container holding the dozen or so pistols plus an Assault rifle all of them made by the Tau'ri. All of them taken from the battlefields of Tauron.

"In working order?" inquired the commander

"Seems to be, they are in locked down mode because of him trying to make them work but give me a few moments and they will be ready to go." said the one holding the container.

"Take them back to the Owl." Ordered the commander before walking around to face the arms dealer. "Now shall we do this the easy way or the hard way?"

"What will you give me if I answer your questions?" inquired the arms dealer

"We will hand you over to your justice system, but if not well we can get you off world without anyone knowing and no one will notice that you are gone." Explained the Commander

"Frak, alright." Said the arms dealer, he wasn't going to mess with the Tau'ri for no gain. "Getting a launching tub is easy, you can get them in a military surplus store."

"I assume they are disabled." Stated the commander

"Yes, however getting them ready is easy, the problem is getting the missile and explosive warhead." Stated the arms dealer "I have a contact at a Viper Production center on Virgon, I was going to get some of their training missiles. Put them with the launchers and pack them with explosives and you have something akin to our anti-tank round or our anti-air missiles. May not be the best weapon, but it is better than a bolt action rifle."

"I see." said the commander as he looked behind him. "He is all yours."

"What?" inquired the arms dealer as he saw two Colonial MPs standing there.

 **Admiral Steven Hackett commander of the 7th Tau'ri fleet stood in the war room of the Battleship Missouri along with some of the highest-ranking officers onboard.** They also had holographic versions of the other Battleship captains under his command and some of the smaller ships captains as well. Hackett looked around at the Holographic images, he knew that almost every one of them where veterans of the Colonial War, he wasn't. He hadn't commanded a single ship in the war with the Colonials, instead he had been in command of all warships in the Pegasus Galaxy, he was second in command under General Shepard. While the other officers had been fighting the Colonials he had been using what little ships where left over from the war effort to hunt down the last of the Wraiths warships. He had cleansed the Pegasus Galaxy of Wraith warships larger then Darts, he had done so good that he got promoted to Commander of the 7th Fleet.

Another hologram appeared across from him, this one was a woman dressed in civilian clothing. As one every one of the officers including the holograms snapped to attention and saluted the hologram.

"Madam President." said Admiral Hackett

"At ease." said Carter as she returned the salute. "Admiral I and high ranking civilian and military leaders have overlooked your plan and you have a green light. We have brought the issue to the Tau'ri congress and they have signed off on it as well."

"When can we begin?" inquired Hackett

"At once." Said President Carter as Hackett nodded his head, as the president's hologram disappeared.

"Gentleman, ladies let's begin." Said Hackett as a tactical display of the Race's home system. It was an up to the minute detail map of the system. It showed not only dots over the planet for ships but holographic tiny outlines of the ships moving in space. The space overall was crowed with large groups of ships gathered over the North and South Pole, those ships where highlighted a shade of orange which marked them as the colonization fleet which was preparing to set off. Along with the ships there where a lot of space stations and satellites those where highlighted different shades as well. A single blue ship was outlined over the nearest world to Home, that marked the Akula class stealth ship the TAV Key West.

"The task before us is both easy and extremely difficult, we are basically making first contact with a culture which believes they are the center of the universe." Explained Hackett "The 1st contact with their military leadership didn't go as well as we can hope, we are now going to go over the head of their fleet Lord and go straight to their Emperor."

Hackett then went forward and gave details of his plans to the other captains and commanders gathered before him. Once everything was done he journey up to bridge and prepared for the mission. The whole of the 7th fleet had been pulled away from their current tasks to multiple launching off points within a minute travel in hyperspace from the Race's home.

 **On Vantic 5 Fleet Lord Straha watched multiple TVs each of his eyes turrets locking on one of the broadcast before moving to the next one.** Each of them showed the same general thing in one form or another. Major riots where breaking out among the natives even in the areas where all the experts had agreed was more a line with the Race, riots where raging. The riots in the more cultured areas where more peaceful which was something but still the Vantics filled the streets and blocked traffic causing massive problems for the race who lived in the area. They protested and tried to march on government buildings. There the Race's police armed with riot shields and batons where more than enough to put down those riots. In the outline areas to the North and South was in full violent riots, the savage natives where not as peaceful. There they were throwing rocks and burning anything, they could get ahold of. There he had sent in the soldiers to put them down with deadly force if needed.

"We have gotten a statement form Fleet Lord Straha of the Conquest Fleet and Fleet Lord Reffet of the Colonization fleet." Said the reporter "They say that they have deployed soldiers to protect the Race's buildings in the hardest hit areas of these terrorist actions. While police will be used on the more peaceful areas. They have also placed a curfew into effect in the areas under military control. If any Vantic is out past curfew they will be arrested. They call on the Vantic to fall in line and be grateful that the Emperor in his wisdom and grace is bringing culture and civilization to this world."

"Some mess you got us into Straha." hissed a voice behind him.

"This needs to be done." answered Straha as he turned toward the Fleet Lord of the Colonization fleet, Reffet. He was the only member of the Race on the planet which was equal in rank to him, both of them where fleet Lords and so they didn't have to call each other superior sir, neither could order the other around, they were equals. "We have been dealing with Terrorist attacks for so long, we need to rip the band aid off instead of tugging it off slowly and painfully."

"We are in pain now." countered Reffet "However while I dislike your unilateral rule on the matter of this stupid food, I understand and approved of it."

"That warms my liver." stated Straha with anything but warmth in his voice. "And how do you feel about the next part of my plan?"

"To take away hatchling?" inquired Reffet as Straha gave the affirmative gesture. "Of that I also approve of in most respects however the planners have just given me an updated outlook of that action, have you seen it?"

"I have not." admitted Straha turning an eye turret to the situation on the monitors. "I have had my eye turrets turned elsewhere."

"They predict more riots larger then these here and even more violent." answered Reffet

"We already knew that." countered Straha "Do you have a point? I admit this will hurt in the short run but we are the Race, we take the long view and this will allow integration of Vantic 5 into the Empire in a shorter amount of time."

"I agree, this will allow us to fully integrate them within a single generation instead of having to wait multiple generations for full integration." said Reffet "You will have my support, I have already given the order for those males and females in hackling rearing to prepare for an influx of work."

"I have done the same thing with my infantry males." confirmed Straha, he had put only the infantry males on alert but the land cruisers, troop carriers and even killer crafts on alert for possible action. "We have 4 worlds in our empire we will not some riots and this idea that blood ties outside of line of the Emperor matter stop us."

"Should be 5 worlds soon." correct Reffet "Atvar will go down as the 1st conquer to take two worlds in our history when he takes Vantic 5."

"He can have that ice ball of a world." Hissed Straha with hate in his voice, Atvar would go down in the history as the conquer of two worlds while he wouldn't. "It shouldn't really count considering how easy the conquest of the sword swing savages of Tosev 3."

 **Fleet Lord Atvar stood in the massive audience chamber on the 137** **th** **Emperor Hetto, all the Ship lords from each of the Conquest fleet had gathered together.** The plan was for them to get together for a meeting once they arrived over Tosev 3 but plans had changed. He would have wanted to have this talk over the radio however they Tau'ri have demonstrated that they can get into the system. So they gathered on board the Banner Ship. The ship lords where all talking among themselves with at least a single eye turret on Atvar who stood at the front of the room along with Kirel who was second in command of the fleet. He hadn't spoken about what he and the others to any of the ship lords or any other members of the Race since he arrived on the ship however it was clear to all the ship lords that the Fleet Lord was not in a good mood.

Finally the last of the Ship lords arrived in the audience chamber, the door closed behind him as all eye turrets turned toward the Fleet Lord.

"Exulted Males, we are in a situation that none of the planners throughout the history of the Race has ever dreamed possible." started Atvar as he moved to the center of the raised platform at the front of the room. "As you all know, we have made contact with another civilization as advanced and possible more advanced then we are. To make matters worse they claim things that go against everything we have ever known about not only science but the way intelligent beings operate. This civilization, the Tau'ri are the sword swinging Tosevites we came to conquer."

That statement went over just as well as Atvar believed it would all of them looked at him as if he was an escape patient from a mental treatment center.

"Going off what we saw from orbit these Tau'ri have not only settled Tosev 3 to such a degree that it would be too crowed to settle on it for us, but they have somehow made the planets of Tosev 4 and while we haven't confirmed it visually Tosev 2 as well into a habitual climate range. Both these worlds are also settled meaning that there are three habitual worlds before us all full of Tosevites." explained Atvar, he saw one of the ship lords waggle his eye in a way that told him he wanted to speak. When he allowed it the ship lord stood up and gave the posture of respect to the Fleet Lord.

"I am sorry exulted fleet lord but did I hear you correctly that these Tau'ri and the Tosevites are the same thing and they have a 3 world empire?" inquired the ship Lord

"For the most part you are correct, however their civilization so they claim spread over 5 worlds and an impossible large area they claim is under their control." reported Atvar as another wave of surprise and the beginning of a wave of anger rose over the ship lords. They were about to become as angry as a bunch of stinging flies after their nest was disturbed.

"But Fleet lord how…how could they have advanced as far as they claim?" inquired the same ship lord.

"We…don't know, they claim that they advance at a rate that is impossible but yet we can see how advanced they are." explained Atvar "They also so no respect to for the Emperor and they claim to be the most advanced and a great power while we are not. They have even gone as far to say our attempt to spread civilization and culture by conquering them could be seen as an act of war, opening them to destroying our Empire."

Just as he expected a wave of anger washed over the ship lords, some got so angry that they jumped out of their seats their tail stumps shaking in anger. There would be more in this briefing that would anger them, however here they would be able to formulate a plan that would lead them to victory over these Tosevites. Unknown to the Fleet Lord or any of the Ship Lords, a small drone had attached itself to the ceiling before using its active camo to blend in with the ceiling. With its powerful cameras and listening system it was capturing everything they said before sending it back to the Tau'ri intelligence teams standing by to study their actions.

 **Far above the surface of Vantic 5 the rocket engine kicked in when it was supposed to as Shuttle Craft pilot Nesseref double checked her instruments.** The Race designed everything to work perfectly every time and accidents where very rare but she still checked. As she expected her flight path was right on course as she flew toward the extreme North of Vantic 5. She knew she was going into the hotbed of terrorist activities but she was going to a Race mining center located within miles of a Race military base. As she did a visual scan of the area around her through her cockpit window she thought she saw a second ship reentry the atmosphere right beside her. She checked her radar but nothing was there but her eyes showed the light that came off a ship entering the atmosphere right where her radar said there wasn't one. She was about to hit the radio to report that she may have a rare malfunction when the heat market disappeared and nothing was there.

"Must be a meteor." stated Nesseref as she made a mental note to report it when she arrived at the mining center port. As Nesseref's shuttle headed in for a landing the Tau'ri Owl which she had seen entering the atmosphere while under cloak de cloaked over a small clearing in a patch of woods. The clearing was too small for the Owl to land so two ropes dropped down from the back ramp of the Owl. Within moments a six person of special forces slide down the ropes and landed on Vantic soil.

 **Above the northern pole of Home, the atomic power plants which power one of the Race's colonization fleet came up to full power.** It was one of the smaller ships in the Colonization fleet and one of only a dozen which was armed, normally none of the ships would be armed however since the Conquest fleet had journeyed first to Vantic 5 and then to Tosev 3 there had been no direct flights between Home and Tosev 3 like it had been on the last conquest. This meant there was a possibly of an asteroid or other problem that would need to be dealt with by the armed ships. They would go ahead of the rest of the Colonization fleet as scouts.

"The flow is good Superior sir." Said the ships pilot to the ship lord of the ship "The flight corridor is before us, requesting permission to head out."

"Make is so." Ordered the ship Lord as they headed away from Home, the birthplace of the race. The ship pulled away from the pole and headed down a path that would lead them out of the system and toward their new home on Tosev 3. All the ships of the race had reinforced glass windows which looked out into space and on the bridge they had a holographic video display which showed both their home and the space before them. Each one of the crew which wasn't already in cold sleep was at either one of the windows or at one of the displays watching home disappeared. Everything was going as planned as the ship headed out past the line of space stations and satellites, then everything changed. Suddenly space ripped open as a vortex of energy erupted almost right in front of them.

Alarms began hissing as the crew tried to come to grips with what was happening. They had never experienced anything like this or hand even imagined anything like it. Then coming out of the vortex before their every eyes came a ship, it was as large as they were and shaped like a sword with the area from the hilt down filled in.

"By the Emperor." hissed the Ship Lord as the dark shape passed to the right side of his ship going at speeds that should have been impossible. Then a beam of energy shot out and seamed to latch onto his ship, then like a professional long ball player his ship was thrown back toward Home. From the outside, it would have appeared as if the ship had been flipped over multiple times but thanks to not having any gravity on the ship the crew was fine. Their motors fired as the ship stabilized, however the unknown ship had come to a stop and floated in space directly in the path that would take them to Tosev 3.

"By the Emperor did you see that?" yelled a member of the race over the radio

"I am not sure what I saw." yelled another pilot as the radio came alive with alarmed calls. The news broadcast which had been covering the departure of the 1st ship now had something much more alarming to cover. Within minutes the news began to cover every channel as the normally scheduled broadcast was interrupted.

 **On board the Missouri, Admiral Hackett watched the situation develop as he had expected them to do.** The Race was thrown into nothing short of a stunned panic, they had no idea what was happening or what was before them.

"Sir, we are beginning to get multiple radio calls coming in." reported the communication officers "Most of them are asking who we are and the like."

Admiral Hackett turned his eyes away from the window which allowed him to look out from the bridge into space itself. From this spot, he could see the red sand colored world of Home, it wasn't a place he a native of Canada would have wanted to go. He checked the countdown clock before nodding to the communication officer. With a push of a button on his holographic control the speaker near Admiral Hackett's collar became live and was broadcasted out to all of Home.

"Attention, this is Admiral Hackett of the Tau'ri 7th fleet on board the Battleship Missouri, your conquest of Tosev 3 has been stopped." reported Admiral Hackett the computer automatically translating him into the hissing and pops of the race. "Your conquest fleet was intercepted and stopped outside of Tosev system by the 1st Tau'ri fleet and will not be allowed to advance any more under threat of war between the Empire of the Race and the Tau'ri Alliance. We have come to your world to open channels of communication to prevent this from happening, however we cannot allow you to launch any ship of your colonization fleet toward our world."

Hackett paused for a moment to let that sink in before going on and to send a message to the rest of the fleet.

"Therefor in accordance with the signed orders of November 17th 2026, Earth year, by the power of the Tau'ri alliance Congress and signed by the President of the Tau'ri Alliance, no ships with a flight path which could possible bring them to Earth or as you know it Tosev 3 will be stopped and turned around." said Hackett as multiple hyperspace vortexes opened up as multiple warships came shooting out as the 7th Fleet arrived in the system. The teeth of the Tau'ri military force in the Milkway galaxy had all arrived over home, 24 Tau'ri battleships, 18 carriers plus, plus escorts made up of cruisers and destroyers all appeared around Home. The Tau'ri fleet formed a bowel shaped formation around the path that the colonization fleet would take to get to Earth. "We are placing this world under blockade."

 **Well I hope you liked this chapter, sorry for the delay but the day after I posted the last chapter my boss put every department (even those like mine who are not behind or have anything to do with production) in the company on mandated 10 hours days plus 6 hours Saturdays for 56 hours a week. So my schedule has been eaten up by that. Still I hope you enjoyed this chapter and until next time please keep reading. Thanks Wilkins75.**


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8 The Game has Changed**

The 37th Emperor Risson of the Race had a few moments before he had to go out and make a speech before the ship lords of the Colonization fleet of Tosev 3. The speech would be broadcasted live around Home and that always made him worry, however the speech was written long time ago and he had practiced it. It was in fact the same speech minus a name switch that the 90th Emperor Heto gave to send the Colonization fleet of Hallis 1, the first world the Race had ever conquered. He turned his eyes turrets toward the banners which hung from the rafters of the audience hall in the Imperial Palace. The banners which hung from the walls one for each of the Empires that the Empire had conquered throughout history, banners from four worlds hung on the walls including the empires that the Empire had conquered here on Home. In time they would add banners for the empires on Tosev 3, in fact if everything was going as plan the Conquest fleet would be in the Tosev system. The conquest would take only a few hours and then they would have to broadcast the images of the banners back to Home where skilled artisans would take over the process of making the banners before they were hung in the hall.

"My Emperor it is time." Said a functionary as he entered the position of respect toward Risson. Unlike anyone else in the Empire he as Emperor didn't have to worry about paint patterns, because his body paint was solid gold. It even had actual gold pieces in the paint to make him shin like the sun. It was said in the ancient days that the Emperor was a living embodiment of the sun and so his paint was solid gold.

"Very well." confirmed Risson as he moved down the black marble hall, it had was perfectly smooth and shined every night so that it sparkled. He was just at the stripped hardwood door which lead out to where the Ship lords of the Colonization fleet was waiting to listen to his speech when something he had never heard before hilled the air. A hissing alarm caused the Emperor to look around in confusion as some of his guards, which like him was painted a solid color only grey instead of gold rushed forward.

"What is it?" inquired the Emperor

"My exulted Emperor, that is an alert we need to get you to the emergency bunker." explained the royal guard as more guards arrived this time carrying firearms something he had never seen before. Firearms where rare with police not normally carrying them outside of special teams. They grabbed him and began to drag him through the palace down into an old pre-unification bunker which had not been removed because of the remote possibility of a terrorist attack. That is also why it had been updated on a constant schedule. It had a large table in the center of the room, with lines of computers lining each wall.

"What is going on?" inquired Risson as all eye turrets in the bunker turned toward their sovereign.

"My Emperor, I don't know how to say this but we unknown ship heading toward home." Explained the head of guard force as Emperor Risson locked both eye turrets on him.

"An unknown ship?" inquired Emperor Risson as he looked around at the guards, the grey painted guards generally only had to worry about over zealot subjects wanting to meet their emperor. They hadn't had to worry about an outside threat since Home was unified.

"Yes, my emperor." said head of the staff "They somehow threw back the 1st recon ship of the Colonization fleet before taking up position over Home."

"Exulted Emperor we are getting a broadcast from one of the unknown ships." reported a radio operator, before Risson could inquire anymore about the unknown force throwing a ship back.

"Put it on." ordered Risson.

"Attention, this is Admiral Hackett of the Tau'ri 7th fleet on board the Battleship Missouri, your conquest of Tosev 3 has been stopped." reported a computerized voice "Your conquest fleet was intercepted and stopped outside of Tosev 9 by the 1st Tau'ri fleet and will not be allowed to advance any more under threat of war between the Empire of the Race and the Tau'ri Alliance. We have come to your world to open channels of communication to prevent this from happening, however we cannot allow you to launch any ship of your colonization fleet toward our world."

"Therefor in accordance with the signed orders of November 17th 2026, Earth year, by the power of the Tau'ri alliance Congress and signed by the President of the Tau'ri Alliance, no ships with a flight path which could possible bring them to Earth or as you know it Tosev 3 will be stopped and turned around." said the voice as more alarms filled the bunker as more strange ships appeared on the radar. "We are placing this world under blockage."

Alarms where going crazy as more unknown ships ranging in size appeared over Home, when everything was done a total of one hundred and sixty ships appeared. Of those 160 ships 42 of those ships where larger than the others with 18 of those strangely staying a little bit more back then the other ships with smaller ships surrounding it.

Emperor Risson like every other male in the bunker and every other member of the Race on Home had no idea what to do or what to say. Their entire view of the universe was that they were the center of it all, that they were the beating heart of culture, technology and everything in the universe. Now a number of ships, less than the number they had in orbit by far but unlike almost all of them these new comers where likely armed was over their heads. In their darkest hour, they turned toward what they knew best, plans.

"What are our plans for dealing with an unknown ships over Home." Inquired the Emperor as the staff around him all spun their eye turrets between each other.

"My Emperor, we don't have any plans this is something we never thought possible." Admitted the head of the guard staff.

"Alright, bring me our historical military expert here at once." ordered Emperor Risson

"It shall be done." Said the staff as they went forward to carry out the order of their emperor.

 **Outside of the emperor palace the normal males and females of the race where in a state between panic and confusion.** Most where trying to wrap their minds about the sudden appearance of these strange ships and then the broadcast claiming that the largest conquest fleet in the history of the Race had been stopped caused fear. None of them where rioting in the streets, instead they rushed to their computers and searched up what the plans where for dealing with something like this. When they found nothing on the computer system, then they started panicking. They began to search for what they were supposed to do in the worst case situation, that plan happened to be a weather event a level 10 Dust Storm. With no other plans to fall back on, the citizens of the empire began to carry out what they were supposed to do when one of these massive storms threatened their homes.

A level 10 dust storm was similar in size and strength as a category 5 hurricane on Earth, however the problem was a major part of all those plans was evacuating the areas in the path of the storm. This time there was no were to go, so they started heading out in almost random directions. Residents from one city would get in their cars and go to another city only to find that the city they evacuated had in turned evacuated to the city they had just come from. Others followed a different plan and went to weather bunkers however the bunkers was only designed to hold a few thousand people for a few hours while the storm passed and the Tau'ri fleet wasn't leaving soon. Some decided the best place to hold up would be at home and they went out to get supplies and a run on shopping centers and stores began, the mass of people all trying to use their pay cards to buy items caused the system to freeze and caused a lot of anger and panic on local levels.

Then word came out of the palace that everyone was to remain calm and that they should remain where they were and await more instruction. They turned on their TVs and the news males and females who were talking about all the wild possibly of what the Tau'ri could possibly be.

"The most likely answer is that they are a conquest fleet from another Empire who ran into our conquest fleet in the middle of space." Stated one of the main news males.

"Could they be here to conquer us?" inquired another one of the reporters

"No, of course not we are the Race the most powerful and most advanced civilization ever to grace the universe." said the same news male "They may actually be here to work out a deal to unify our empires together into an even larger and stronger one.

"That is a possibility." admitted the second reporter as an aid moved in and handed the 1st one a piece of paper.

"We just got a written statement from Emperor Risson." said the reporter as he cast down his eyes for a moment at the name of his ruler. "Today, ships from the Tau'ri Empire arrived over Home. We are currently gathering experts to begin to form plans about how we will move forward. The Tau'ri Empire has stated in their broadcast that they do not wish war and therefore we are in no danger. We will begin however to take steps to protect ourselves. I have ordered all ships near the Tau'ri to the far side of Home and the armed explosive metal missile ships are moving forward to protect home. We will have more information soon. Signed Emperor Risson."

"Well then now let's all remain calm and prepare to receive a plan from the palace." said the reporter.

 **The Tau'ri recon team moved carefully through the woods of Vantic 5 as the race called it, the Tau'ri team was made of veterans from the Colonial war or from the Stargate program.** They were dressed for a stealth recon job, light on weapons heavy on intelligence gathering equipment. Even so each member of the six-man team carried their main weapon, side arms and combat knives. They all had power armor on which would give them enhanced strength, speed and endurance, even if it did add to their overall outline. They wore full face helmet with a heads-up display that would make any fighter pilot only ten a years ago could only dream about. They had their life sign detector on one corner which also showed the local of each of other. They could also pull up an ammo count with only a voice command as well as environmental information being gathered. With another voice command they could go infrared, night vision, zoom in and get a picture either from a drone overhead or from a camera mounted to their gun barrel which would allow them to shoot around corners with ease.

"This looks like a good spot." Said the Commander as the five men and one women team got down into a defensive position around one of the thin but extremely tall trees which seamed common here. They sat within view of what in the distance looked to be a major highway of some kind nearer to them was what they believed to be a farm house. They could see a couple of the natives moving around working on the field.

"They do look like giant mantis." Said the marksman as he aimed his high-power sniper rifle down the small rise toward the farm. The natives of Vantic, had triangle like faces with eyes which wrapped somewhat around the side. They walked on four legs attached to a main center body with a torso shooting out from the front. There they had two arms to work tools and tools they did have. Simple farming tools but they used them with skill. "I see maybe ten or twelve of them wait…I got another one coming out of the house. Looks to be a female."

"How can you tell?" inquired one of the rifle men.

"Can't be 100% sure but this one has what looks to be a baby in her arms." admitted the marksman as one of the other Vantic walked over and placed his hand on the baby, before looking back up at the female. "Must be her husband."

"Any sign they will come up here?" inquired the commander

"No, looks like they are focusing on the field closer to the highway." said the marksman.

"This is Green Wolf 1 calling Snow Bird, come in Snow bird." Said the commander over the radio.

"This is Snow Bird, are you in place?" inquired the pilot of the same Owl which had dropped them off.

"Placing control center down now." Said the commander as one of his team pulled a large bulky laptop computer. In truth, the lap top was bulky in order to protect it from anything up to a rifle round hitting it square in the case. He opened it up and placed a small receiver down. The operator gave him a thumb up sign. "You have a go."

"Go!" yelled the pilot to the crew operator in the back of the Owl. The Owl had become the workhorse of the Tau'ri military and was designed to carry out multiple roles ranging from medical transport to stealthy recon. This model was a recon version often nicknamed snow owls because of they had clocking and multiple sensors. Even so a world was a large place for a single Owl to cover and so they needed help. Help came from the what the crew operator was shoving out of the back ramp of the Owl. He threw out four containers about the size of a missile launcher case, however once in the air they automatically opened to show instead of a missile was a drone.

The case unfolded to into two wings each with engines in them blowing air down, another larger engine was located on the back which allowed it to move backwards and forwards at a high rate of speed. The center column area held multiple sensors which would report every detail that the drone came across. The drones didn't have a full cloak like the Owl, instead it had color changing panels on the drone which broke out it's outline making it very hard to see.

The four drones shot out an equal distance from the center area marked by the secondary control center that the recon team had placed down. Two of the drones went high to get a greater over view while the other two went low to get more detailed up close information. In total, the four drones would cover an area equal to the size of the state of Alaska in five hours making them a valuable tool to the Tau'ri.

"Alright kids, time to hurry up and wait." Said the commander as they team guarded the drone control. The Owl for its park was heading off toward another drop off point where four more drones would be launched, this time controlled by the Owl itself.

 **On board the Missouri Admiral Hackett was also waiting, waiting for a response from the Race on Home.** So far the Race had done next to nothing in space, they had pulled back the ships away from the blockage and moved the few armed ships which was going to be the scouts for the Colonization fleet. The space in front of the Tau'ri 7th fleet and Home had been cleared by the Race which had only been to the benefits of the 7th fleet as the Clocked Akula Class stealth ship Key West moved into the gap and took up position behind the Race's only defense line. Because he had time to kill Admiral Hackett and some of the other higher-ranking officers moved around the bridge going to each station to get an update instead of making the lower ranking officers at those stations come to them.

"Sir, we are monitoring their news channels." reported Communications to the Admiral. "They are still trying to get a grip on what is happening, but they are really taking their time."

"How so?" inquired Hackett

"Sir, apparently they are holding a type of conference to discuss the situation but it doesn't start for a couple of hours." Reported Communications "And the news is acting like this is an unheard-of event to have an unscheduled meeting so soon. I imagine if an unknown ship arrived over Earth or another one of our worlds we would try to contact them, but they haven't even attempted that since we made our announcement."

"Reports did say they like to take their time." said the intelligence officer. "Still you would think with so many ships in orbit they would light a fire under the issue."

"Yes, sir and the media is doing that somewhat." added the Communication officer as she flipped a switch as a broadcast from Home showed the Tau'ri arrival before going to a group of "experts" to talk about what it could mean. The computer translated it as some of the talk as the members of the Race talked around a low table as if it was an some kind of debate show.

"These Tau'ri must have intercepted our fleet half way between Home and Tosev 3." Said one of the Lizards as the camera zoomed in on a head shot. It was impossible to tell them apart when they didn't show the brightly colored patterns of paint on their bodies. "This raises an issue could this be a conquest fleet coming to take us over?"

"Fool, we are the Race the most advanced force in the galaxy and our conquest can never be stopped." Countered another of the lizards, "While I admit we have finally made contact with another advanced space traveling Empire, we must remember the same reasons why we go out conquering would be the same reason they do. They would have sent a probe to Home and no probe ever came here. So our forces must ran into each other's snouts as they both tried to reach Tosev 3 and our forces where beaten."

The debate went back and forth for a while, discussing everything that was possible in the eyes of the Race and while none of it was true it was interesting to see.

"Either way, with our military ships guarding us overhead these Tau'ri would fall flat on their tail stumps if they tried to attack us." Said one of the experts as Admiral Hackett fought down some laugher. His ship alone could not only destroy their defense line within seconds but could control the entire planet from orbit within 15 minutes. The gunners would have a harder time keeping track of everything they brought down then the actual enemy was. "We are facing them eye turret to eye turret and it will be them who will give up first."

"Interesting, lets show them we aren't so slow." Said Hackett as he moved up to the ships control area. Here the ship itself, the speed, the direction and everything else was controlled. Standing behind six other crew man was a young looking lieutenant.

"Lieutenant, how fast could we circle around the blockage before coming to a stop at this position on the other side of home?" inquired Admiral Hackett "Where all their civilian ships have pulled back too."

"Full sunlight, sir maybe 2 or 3 minutes, 5 at the most." said the young officer

"Good, we will move around to the other side and show to them that we are not the one's boxed in, they are the ones under blockage." said Admiral Hackett

"Like a wolf circling a deer." Said the second officer with a slight laugh.

"Yes, sir." Said the young lieutenant with a slightly disapproval in his voice.

"Is something wrong Lieutenant?" inquired Admiral Hackett to the young officer, who took as if he wanted to run but also as if he had to get what he had to say off his chest. Hackett had seen it before, a young officer questioning his command thinking they had the right answer and while some of them would curse their commander out load among friends most just shut up and said No sir. Here however that didn't happen.

"Sir, forgive me if I am wrong but isn't a blockage an act of war?" inquired the young officer "Isn't be doing so we are at war with them all ready."

"You are right, it could be seen that way." admitted Hackett making the young officer feel better, it took guts to question an Admiral when you were only a Lieutenant but that was something Hackett liked in an officer as long as it was respectful. "In truth most would see it that way, however sending an armed conquest fleet to invade a world is also a clear sign of war and we can throw that back at them if we need to. Also we are only blockading ships heading toward Earth not any other part of their empire."

"I hadn't thought of that, sir." admitted the Lieutenant

"That is ok, it escaped some of the Captains in the fleet as well." said Admiral Hackett with a warm understanding smile. "I want you to prepare to move the ship, await my command."

"Yes, sir." Said the young officer as Admiral Hackett and the officers moved away.

"I am sorry sir, Joker has a habit of speaking his mind that is why he was sent to us instead of the school he wanted." Said the second officer of the Missouri as Hackett turned and looked at him.

"Joker?" inquired Hackett

"Sorry Sir, Flight Lieutenant Jeff Moreau, that is his nickname. Got hung on him in flight school not sure why, scored multiple top records for his sims scores in the Eagle, Tatia fighter bomber and every other small wing bird we put him in." explained the second officer of the Missouri as they walked back toward the center of the bridge. "Problem is he some sort of brittle bone sickness, with Asgard and Ancient technology he can walk around in normal gravity fine which allowed him to enter flight school but it was found that even 2 Gs will break his legs. So he was transferred to ship bound duty instead of the faster smaller ships even with their equipment they pilots can experience multiple Gs on larger ships they don't. He hates it but he is a good pilot."

"I see." said Hackett as he thought about it. "I want his file on my desk as soon as possible, if he is as good as you claim I may have a special task for him."

"Yes, Sir." said the second officer as they reached the center of the bridge.

"Lieutenant Moreau, move the ship to the position ordered." ordered Hackett

"Aye Aye sir." said Jeff as he went to his controls and took the massive ship in his hands and began to power it forward and around the planet, he did it was a good amount of skill. He kept the main weapon of the Missouri, the three massive ancient beam cannons located in the bow of the ship in such a position that within moments they could be turned on either the small group of defenders or the planet itself.

 **On board the forward most armed ships of the Race, panic filled the bridge as one of the strange ships began to move at speeds that shouldn't be possible.**

"Ship Lord, the Tau'ri ship is moving!" hissed the radar operator on the lead ship.

"Contact the Palace we need instructions on what to do." Said the Ship Lord "How long until the ship reaches to the other side of Home."

He had expected a few hours, maybe even a day. The ship was starting form basically a stop position in space so to throw enough mass out the engines to gain speed would take time.

"5 minutes!" reported the Radar operator

"Sir, we cannot let that ship reach the other side of Home." said the tactical officer and the only male onboard who had actually gone through military training.

"Very well." Said the Ship Lord as he prepared himself. "Prepare to broadcast a message to the Tau'ri ship."

Within moments everything was ready and the Ship Lord lifted a microphone to his mouth.

"Attention Tau'ri ship if you come closer to Home we will fire on you with explosive metal weapons." Said the Ship Lord, in his mind's eye he had expected the ship to stop at once, he was a ship lord and he had nuclear weapons.

"Sir, if I may add they are staying the same distance away from Home they are only moving to a new position." Reported the Radar operator. The ship didn't stop and instead a message was sent back.

"Go ahead and try." Said the Tau'ri back in a digitized voice.

"Fire one missile." Ordered the ship lord in a flash of anger of being brushed aside with no care.

"Repeat your command." Said the weapon officer

"Fire one missile at the Tau'ri ship." Said the ship lord again.

"It shall be done." said the weapon officer as a single missile went flying out from the ship and headed straight toward the Tau'ri ship. Strangely the ship made no move to block the threat or even act as if it was under attack.

"Are they asleep?" inquired the weapon officer as the Radio came alive with yells of idiot and questions about what he had just done.

"By the Emperor did I just start a war?" inquired the Ship Lord as the race's nuclear missile exploded in space. The flash filled space and for a moment the Tau'ri ship disappeared both from radar and from the naked eye. When the light faded, to the amazement of the Ship Lord and every other member of the race the Tau'ri ship was not just still there it looked as if it was perfectly intact.

"That is impossible it just took a hit from an explosive metal bomb…it can't be intact." stated the ship lord not knowing of the powerful energy shield which protected the Tau'ri ship. The Tau'ri ship never even responded again it instead moved past the only defense the Race had as if it was nothing before moving toward the large gathering of civilian ships on the other side of the world. Then calmly it took up position on the other side of the world as it began to sink in just how badly off the Race currently found itself.

"That was your one shoot, next time we shoot back." Said the Tau'ri ship back before moving toward the civilian ships. The Civilian ships had no idea what to do, some tried to move to the far side away from the Missouri, only that was where the other Tau'ri ships where. Some tried to go for a higher orbit and some tried to get permission to land. A small handful even asked if they could break orbit and head to another world in the Empire. In the end, the Missouri settled in the middle of the civilian fleet like a wolf among the sheep.

 **The officers on flag ship of the 1** **st** **fleet the Battleship Yamato things where getting so boring that even the normally laser focused General Leong was beginning to lose focus.** The conquest fleet of the Race hadn't moved or done anything of note in hours and it was beginning to get on everyone's nerves.

"God, it's like watching paint dry." Complained an aid standing beside General Leong as she and other high-ranking officers gathered in the ships main meeting room. They were watching the broadcast of the Race's meeting of their high-ranking officers on their flagship and so far they had learned next to nothing of any real importance.

"How long have they been at it?" inquired another aid

"About 4 hours." answered General Leong as she began to wonder if maybe she should frighten the lizards to get them to do something. They had spent the entire 4 hours since the start of this meeting debating if what they saw with their own eyes was real. They had spent a whole 45 minutes talking about if it was even possible to form a government by snout counting as they called it. Then they had spent two and a half hours talking if it was possible for a group of savages to go from sword swinging savages to space travel in such a short 900 years. Some of their ship lords believed that it was all trick by and it was impossible. They hadn't even really touched anything real of military importance until they reached the 3 and 45-minute mark, now they were talking about if they occupy and hold three worlds.

"Honored males, I believe we have made a good start but we can't sit here all day." said Atvar "We all need to eat, I have ordered the food staff to prepare a meal we shall eat and come back in 2 hours to resume our discussion and formulate our plans."

"God, they have done nothing." stated an intelligence officer "It is as if they want to sit and wait for things to happen instead of reacting to it."

"And that may be why we are still free." Countered General Leong "They started planning this conquest 900 years ago, if they had moved at our speed we would have been conquered soon afterwards. So let them take their time, while they do that we will gather more intelligence and move pieces into position."

 **Back on Vantic 5 the recon team was still in the same position on the small rise by the farm, they had monitored the farmers for a while and none of them had made an attempt to come toward them.** They hadn't even noticed the soldiers lying low in the tall grass among the even taller trees. The view of the world mostly came from the drones which were busy mapping the area. The drones gave them a good view of the area, they could see the clear differences between the cities of the natives and the occupiers. The races cities looked generally the same, so much so that it sometimes hard to tell the cities apart.

The had the same basic layout, the same design of streets, buildings and even the parks looked like they had been copied and pasted into the same position. All their buildings seemed to be based off squares or rectangles of different sizes. Factories where low and long while apartment buildings where a median size and so on. Even the skyscrapers in the larger cities where clones of each other all going to the same number of floors and internal designs with no clear differences at all.

"Not really that creative, are they?" said one of the riflemen as he used a mini screen on the inside of his helmet to see what the drone was looking at.

"No, internal scanners show that even the lay out inside the buildings are the same." Added the drone operator. "The native buildings are more interesting, they kind of remind me of some of the work in the oldest parts of Venice with some old German half-timber buildings thrown in and an Arab style market place."

"Interesting, look at this." said the operator as he played with the mouse on the computer and zoomed in to show a line of military vehicles headed out of the base. "Looks like we have some APCs and heavy duty trucks heading out of the nearest military base."

"I wonder where they are going." Said the commander until an alarm flashed on the screen. "What is it?"

"Sir, the drone has detected a programed high value inquest nearby." Said the operator as the drone turned away from following the convoy toward what looked to be a large stripe mine in the distance.

"What is this all about?" inquired the commander

"There are some things that are hard programed into the drone, when it's sensors detect them they send up this alert and unless ordered not to they go to investigate them." Explained the operator "Mostly things like Ancient or unknown power sources, mineral deposits and other rare elements."

"And which one came up?" inquired the commander

"Not sure, pulling it up now." Said the operator as he clicked the alert box and got a more detailed message. "Something called Zephry, never heard of it but it is a level 1 tasking and an automatic alert to….my God, we are supposed to contact the President or the highest official in theater at once."

"What could possibly be so important about this to contact the President." Said the commander as the drone flew over the strip mine, the mine wasn't active not anymore at least. It looked as if someone had once used simple tools like picks and shovels to attach the raw material below but not anymore. That wasn't to say no one was there, in fact a lot of the Race guarded the place with a tall fence and armed soldiers. A group of what seemed to be experts of some kind was working out a trailer near the center. The drone dropped down and thanks to its active camo remained unnoticed by the guards before going as far away as possible from the center work trailer. There it extended a small robotic arm and took a sample from the rock. Within moments it was confirmed and more alarms appeared on the screen.

"Well it is time to contact the President." Said the Commander as he first contacted the Akula class stealth ship, the Spartan which was in the system. They would have to broadcast the message back to Earth.

 **Back inside her new office President Carter had gathered around some of her top advisors and friends, most of them had official positions inside the Government while others lacked them.** The main person who lacked that position in the new government was Dr. Daniel Jackson but no one had raised an issue with his unofficial position in the cabinet.

"All the reports we have say the Race are really taking their time in figuring out what to do." Started Carter to the men and women around her. "No official statements have come from any of them and aside from that they have done next to nothing."

"They are likely in shock." Said Daniel "The people in the History Department at the university which has gone over the history tell me, that very little changes. We are talking hundreds of years with next to no changes and when things do change they change very slowly."

"So we have turned their entire view of the galaxy on its head." added an advisor "That takes time to process."

"Agreed, now the main issue is what will we do about them?" Inquired Carter as she looked down at a map showing the four worlds the Race controlled. "Their territory is rather small and from what little we have gathered about them three of their four worlds are totally in their control."

"Part of me says we should just form a border with them and be done with them." said her Secretary of State "The worlds are hot, dry and not the place most of us would want to go to yet alone live there. The issue is twofold first what to do about Vantic 5, they have conquered it and settled it but it isn't fully under their control and the second is that they need another world to settle on for their colonist who were supposed to come here."

"Isn't there a world in their home system or another one of systems they control that we could terraform for them, it would settle a lot of issues and it wouldn't be that hard." Advised the head of her science and technology department.

"Not sure we will need to look into that." admitted Carter as she placed a hand under her chin. "That would solve a lot of our issues, just terra form the worlds for them and be done with it."

Suddenly a built-in light on her phone's charging base turned on, Carter was going to ignore it when a second light beside it turned on. That meant it was a matter of some importance.

"Excuses me, seams a message is coming in for me." explained Carter as she picked up a small phone and depressed a button on the phone's charger. "This is President Carter."

"President Carter, this is the watch office we have a flash communication coming in from the recon team on Vantic 5." Said a military officer in the communications office located downstairs.

"Alright." said Carter as she waited for a little while for the connection to go through. She heard a click as the link was established between the distance recon team and the President.

"This is President Carter." repeated Carter

"President Carter this is Colonel Kumar." introduced the distance Colonel as Carter thought she recognized the name and rank. If she was remembering correctly he had been in command of SG-16 team back when she was in control of Stargate Command. He was a member of the New Zealand special forces, what branch she couldn't remember.

"Colonel Kumar what is the situation on Vantic." Said Carter

"Well Madam President we have been on station here on the ground for a few hours and one of our recon drones have picked up some element called Zephry and the computer said to contact you or another high-ranking officer." explained Colonel Kumar as Carter had to think about it for a moment before she remembered what Zephry was.

"My God, is that been confirmed?" inquired Carter

"Our drone gathered a sample and confirmed it, no idea how much yet we need different equipment to do so." explained Colonel Kumar "The sample was taken from a large mine about 10 kilometers away from my team current location."

"What is Zephry?" inquired an official in the room with Carter.

"The missing element we need to make ZPMs." started Carter

"My God, we need to see how much is there and get our hands on it." added another person.

"Colonel you are head to that mine and await the arrival of more equipment to confirm the size of the deposited." Ordered Carter

"Wait…madam president something is happening here." reported Colonel Kumar "A military convoy of the Race has just pulled up on the farmhouse below us."

"Have they spotted you?" inquired the President

"No looks like they are moving toward the family down below." Reported Colonel Kumar as everyone in the room wished they had an actual visual uplink to the distance team.

The Tau'ri recon team watched from a distance the scene as a group of soldiers of the race moved toward the farm house. The race's soldiers wore body armor and helmets which was the only type of clothing the Tau'ri had ever seen them wear. While some of them watched the team of soldiers move toward the farmhouse, others looked at the convoy. The Race's APC where fully tracked and had a small turret on the corner which reminded most of them an old M113 personal carrier. There was only a few of them, the bulk of the convoy was made out of large covered trucks.

"Sir, I got movement in the trucks." Said a marksman as he switched to thermal and saw through the covering. Thanks to the thermal imagines he could see bodies, judging from their thermal outlines they were the native Vantic. Then he noticed the cold rings around their arms and legs. "Sir, they appear to have the natives shackled in the back of the trucks."

Behind the marksman, Colonel Kumar reported the information back to the President all the way back on Earth. The marksman turned his rifle away from the convoy back to the farm house where a member of the Race was talking with one of the farmers with a squad of soldiers behind him. The famer was getting clearly upset throwing his hands up in the air.

"Moving nearest drone toward the location." reported the operator as one of the high-flying drones moved one's of its cameras toward the farm house and began getting video of the scene below. The camera was extremely powerful and got everything clearly. It couldn't get any sound but the camera did catch when one of the males behind the talking one raised his weapon and fired a burst of gunfire from his rifle.

"Shots fired, I say again shots fired." Reported Colonel Kumar as they watched the farmer go down. The Vantic female who was holding a baby rushed forward to her husband and knelt beside him. Then with coldness the soldiers of the Race moved forward and ripped the baby from her arms. Others were heading toward the smaller Vantic people, some of the older ones tried to protect the youngers one only to get forced aside at gun point.

"Madam President they are going after children." Reported Kumar back to Earth and his commander. "Looks like they are rounding up children."

"Any sign of a reason?" inquired Carter

"No Madam President." Said Kumar as the children began running through the fields, one of them was heading straight toward the Tau'ri recon team hiding in the woods. He was being chased by a solider of the race weapon ready. "Madam President we have one of the children heading toward us with a solider behind him. Can we engage?"

 **Finia was breathing heavily as she ran toward the safety of the woods beside her family's house, behind her she could hear the rapid movement of at least one Race solider.** Maybe the one who had murdered her father because he refused to hand over his children. She didn't understand what was going on only that when her mother had told her to run, she ran toward the woods as fast as her four legs would take her. She knew a place there, a place where she would always hide when her and her siblings where playing hid and find. If she could reach there she knew she would be safe, she had just entered the woods when a massive amount of weight hit her from behind. She fell forward into the dirt with the shade of the trees over her.

"You idiot." Hissed the solider as she rolled over to see him standing over her, he was breathing heavily after tackling her to the ground. His weapon was pointed at her. "You are going to a better place, a place to become civilized."

"You murdered my father and are taking me away from my family!" hissed back Finia as best she could in the tongue of the race. That only got the male angry as he spun his rifle around and hit her in the chest with the but of his gun. He delivered three hard blows before stepping back a bit.

"You crawlers with your idea that blood lines or families matter." Hissed the solider using the insult Crawlers which was what the Race tended call her people. She spat in his face as he raised his rifle to beat her again, she turned her head and closed her eyes to prepare for the blow to come. It never did, she opened them again to see that someone had grabbed the solider by the back on the neck with one hand while ripping the gun out with the other hand. Finia's eyes widened as she began to make out the figure, he was tall an equal to her father in height and was taller than any member of the race however he wasn't a member of the race or even one of her own kind. He stood on two legs like the race but he didn't have a tail stump, he wore cloths like she did only his was patterned in such a way to blend in with the area around him. He wore body armor like the race did with poaches in the front for ammo, one his knees where knee pad and the handle of a knife was visible on a shoulder strap along with a pistol. A strangle rifle hung from another strap around his shoulder and he had what appeared to be metal tubes framing his body. She looked toward his face only to see it hidden by a full helmet with a visor which was shaded in such a way she couldn't see much through the glass. Even so she could tell he wasn't a member of the race, the solider for himself was struggling as he was lifted off the ground and held up by the neck like a small beast, then with one quick move her savoir snapped the neck of the Race's solider before tossing his body was tossed aside.

"Are you alright?" said the man in a strange voice but in the tongue of the race.

"Yes…" answered Finia in her own tongue only to see him tilt his head slightly as if he was confused.

"Sorry, but our translator programs don't understand your speech can you speak in the Language of the Race?" stated the man

"Yes." hissed Finia

"Good, stay here we are going to go take care of the others and get your family back." Said the man as Finia looked around and saw more of these strangers, there was six of them in total all of them armed.

"Who…what are you?" inquired Finia

"We are the Tau'ri." answered the figure as five of them moved off leaving her alone with one of them who while keeping an eye on her was also monitoring what looked to be a computer similar to what the Race used. She had seen at least four or five squads of soldiers down there and two APCs and these men where going to go take them on, it was suicide to take them on and yet that is what they were going to do.

 **Well I hope you liked this chapter, the Race is about to learn some things. Now until next time I hope you keep reading. Thanks Wilkins75.**


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9 A New Battlefield**

The Tau'ri special forces members moved down the hill, they stayed low using the tall crops as cover as they moved toward the farmhouse. Once they entered the field the five of them split up into two groups, one group of 3 and another into a pair. The sixth member of their squad was staying back providing over watch as best as he could and monitoring the recon drone. The recon drone was going to be key to their assault, with it they could see that they were about to take on 55 enemy soldiers in a seven-truck convoy full of child prisoners with two APCs with heavy machine cannons as support. It was a task none of them would have wanted to do but one they had all trained to do. They had some key advantages over their enemies.

First, they had better equipment, training and personal weapons. Secondly thanks to the drone, they knew where everyone was, that the race had spread out, a squad of 10 of them where looking through the house and barn while another squad of 10 headed toward them but they followed a small path through the crops and where bunched together because of it, another squad was doing the same down a second path through the field which lead toward the highway and was heading away from them. That left one squad to protect the APCs and keep the prisoners in lines. Given that the native vantic most advanced weapon that the Tau'ri had seen was a farm scythe to do field work and that the prisoners where restrained it was enough to keep the prisoners there.

The three-member team headed forward passing the advancing Race patrol, to the eyes of the veteran Tau'ri the soldiers of the Race didn't impress them. They had bullet proof vests which would have been acceptable back in the 1990s but was laughable outdated compared to the advanced body armor they were wearing. There weapons seamed about equal to the AK-47 series of family and they were still considered deadly enough to be of concern. They didn't carry them as if they were in a combat area, they had them slung over their backs and some of them looked as if they hadn't even put in their magazines. They had no point man and no one trailing behind them, they were all bunched together as if they were a group of friends on a stroll, they were not paying attention and didn't notice the two Tau'ri trailing them through the field.

The other three Tau'ri headed not toward the two squads by the farmhouse but to the convoy of vehicles. One of the APCs was in the front with the other at the far end with seven large trucks between them. There was a handful of guards moving around but like their counterparts in the search teams these soldiers where relaxed and had their guard down. Each one of their weapons had suppressors attached to the barrels and now it was time to use them. The first one to fall was a diver of one of the trucks who had his window down to get some fresh air. The round went through the side of his head causing the other side to explode out with brain matter and pieces of skull, he never felt a thing. The next couple went down just as easily, with their suppressed weapons and the lack of paying attention by the race they went off to meet their maker as the Tau'ri would call it, or spirits of Emperor's past for the Race. That left only four members of the Race left alive in the convoy, the driver and gunner who also acted as commander in each of the two APCs.

The one in the rear went down first as one of the Tau'ri lined up on the side of the back most APC and pocked his gun around the corner. With the mounted camera on the barrel she could see the interior of the ACP, it was set up with a central area with firing ports for soldiers with a driver and gunner in the front. There was no separation between the fighting compartment and the driving area. She had a clear view of the driver and could have taken him down with ease but the gunner sat in a raised area and she had no shot on him.

"I have to go in." she reported over the radio as she put away her rifle and pulled out her pistol. She entered the fighting compartment having to almost bend in half to do so, the race stood about as tall as a 12 year old boy and they designed everything to fit them.

"By the emperor is it time to go yet sir?" inquired the Driver thinking she must be a member of his convoy. When he got no response, he turned an eye turret around to look behind him. That surprised the Tau'ri and for a moment neither of them did anything then she pulled the trigger blowing his head off and spraying the inside of the vehicle with his brain.

"By the Emperor!" yelled the gunner as he looked down, but it was too late to do more than that as pulled the trigger and ended the gunner's life. The second APC was easier because the gunner was down in the fighting compartment and that gave the Tau'ri an open shot. With that done two of the Tau'ri headed toward the main farmhouse where over twenty-five soldiers of the race where searching either the house, outbuildings or watching the adult vantic prisoners. Here because of their prisoners the race had their weapons out and where on alert there would be no sneaking around here.

"Whatever you do not speak or make a noise." Said the female member of the recon team as she stood by one of the covered trucks. The translator program in her helmet made her words come out as if she was speaking in the hisses and pops of the race. With that done she lifted the flap up of the truck with her other hand on her pistol which remained just out of sight of anyone in the back of the truck. What greeted her was both strange and familiar, there was over two dozen of the Vantic people all cramped into the back of the truck. There arms and legs where restrained and somehow even with their insect face they showed fear at her. The fact that they looked like giant mantises out of some Hollywood science fiction movie was off putting but the image of them coring in corners as the older kids held onto the younger kids for protect could have come from any war in human history.

"Don't worry, I am not going to hurt you." reassured the Tau'ri as she dropped the lid of the truck. With one move she lifted herself up into the bed, the vantic backed away from her as far as they could but the chains holding them in place made that next to impossible. She went up to the nearest one and even as he or she, she couldn't tell the gender recoiled back. She reached out and with the help of the power armor, snapped the chain. The vantic looked at her with those dark eyes, before saying something in its own tongue.

"I don't understand." Stated the Tau'ri

"Thank you." Said the Vantic in the hisses of the Race.

"No problem." Said the Tau'ri as she looked around, now all of them had their hands out ready to have their restraints removed. It was an easy process in theory but it did task the power armor to snap all those chains.

"Alright, you come with me I need your help calming down the next truck, of the rest of you can any of you drive this truck?" inquired the Tau'ri

"No, we do not fit in the driving compartment." explained one of them.

"Shit." Cursed the Tau'ri "Alright just stay put, I'll tell you when to run and when you do head to that tree line, do you understand."

They made some gesture with their hands she had never seen before but as one they answered yes.

"Alright, you with me I still need your help calming the rest of them down." ordered the Tau'ri as they headed to the next truck.

 **Finia stayed low, her legs sprayed out which lowered her profile to the ground she even lied down on her chest to stay even lower.** Her ancient ancestors had used such a position when they went out hunting, they and she could now spring up from that position and surprise a target or allow her to get away. Right now, she didn't want to run away, she could see one of these Tau'ri only a few body lengths away however thanks to the strange cloths he was wearing he blended into the grass and trees, not perfectly but he wasn't wearing the multiple colored body paint of the race which made them stand out in the woods and grassland. Even his rifle, she assumed it was a rifle was covered with a strange wrapping to hide the dark grey color of the metal. The weapon while clearly different then the weapon the soldiers of the Race carried was of a kind similar meaning it could fire more than one shot at a time. Those weapons and the metal carts that fired cannons shells along with their flying machines had crushed every army which that her people had sent against them. She shook a little remembering the day they came, she was a little girl and was amazed by the things in the air until she saw the fires of the burning city in the distance, then it wasn't as amazing.

She turned her attention down the hill to where her family's farm was, her great, great grandparents had settled here and built up the farm. She could see her mother, uncles, aunts and older adult cousins lined up by the barn under armed guards. Her father lied where he had been shot not even being paid attention to by the soldiers of the Race, her younger cousins, brother and baby sister had been taken to the convoy of trucks. Her attention was locked on her home until she noticed that all the soldiers of the race around the convoy where on the ground and not moving. One of the Tau'ri was moving between the trucks with a distance neighbor boy.

"How? How can that be possible?" inquired Finia as she looked toward the Tau'ri solider nearby with amazed eyes. She couldn't understand what he was saying but he was saying something to himself or did he have one of these radio things the race had, she didn't know.

Everything was almost in place, the children where free and waiting to run with one of the team ready to provide covering fire. Two of their team where in positions to engage the main body while the other two were behind and to either side of a squad of 10 lizards heading slowly up the road toward them. The main issue was the second patrol squad heading away from them, if they got on their radios that could be a problem.

"Alright, activating radio jammer in three…two…one…executing." said the marksman as he pressed a button on the nearby lap top computer, with that the drone overhead began to jam any radio transitions heading in or out of the area that wasn't Tau'ri. "Alright, team light them up in three…two…one…execute…execute."

 **Out in the field the squad of dumb lizards never noticed what was happening, they never heard the pop sound of two grenades pins being pulled and the lever falling away.** With their enhanced strength from the power armor the Tau'ri special forces could throw their grenades at much greater distance however the two in the field had different ideas. One of them threw their grenade in an arch so that it would land directly in front of the first solider in the squad, the other one had a different idea and threw the high explosive weapon like a baseball. His aim was perfect as it slammed into the back of the head of the solider. Moments after both grenade hit they exploded one in front of the squad and the other in the center mass of the squad. The effects where horrible, body parts ripped off the soldiers of the race, arms where sent flying and those who still had all their limbs had large pieces of metal impaling them. They hissed in pain as they fell to the ground, a luckily few in the squad were still alive but not for long as they were sent off to the next world with a quick burst of fire from the Tau'ri special forces members.

 **There was no way to hide the sound of explosion as the soldiers in and around the farmhouse all turned toward the sound of the exposition.** For a moment they froze in place, one eye turret locked on the location of the blast while the other moved around searching for threats, that was an evolutionary habit but it worked against them, a none moving targets are much easier to hit. Both Tau'ri special forces members located near the house opened with short controlled bursts while the marksman on the distance hill pulled the trigger of his sniper rifle sending a round down range.

The large 7.62x51 mm round flew out of the barrel and as the marksman worked the bolt action on his rifle pulling another round up from the 15 round magazine attached to the bottom of the rifle before the 1st round found it's mark. It went straight through what snipers call the T which is an area defined by the eyes and the bottom chin, on a human this shot is deadly 100% of the time because it destroys the brain stem and a person is dead before they hit the ground. While the T was off because of the turreted eyes and the long snot it had the same effect as the round went into the race soldiers head before exploding out the back.

By now the Race was moving and shooting back but this was a battle they had never expected and they were facing something they had never seen outside of training against their own people back on home. The native Vantic's most advanced weapon was a wheel lock pistol or rifle that could fire maybe 4 times a minute with a highly skilled loader and had a max range of around 50 yards for the rifle and half that for the pistol and was inaccurate even then. The standard Tau'ri rifle rate of fire at just under 800 rounds a minute with an effective range of almost 900 yards and they fired a much more powerful and arcuate round then the large metal ball the Vantic weapon fired. The race to their credit returned fire but the Tau'ri where under cover and using suppressors both in the form of sound and flash making it harder to located.

"Move!" yelled the Tau'ri by the last APC in the line as she placed a high explosive charge inside the wheel well of the APC by what looked to be the fuel tank. The Vantic hiding in the trucks jumped out and ran for the woods in the distance. As she passed each truck she double checked to make sure it was clear before placing an explosive charge on the truck. She counted out the trucks and finally reached the first APC and placed the finial charge. She pressed down on her wrist mounted control computer, 15 seconds later the explosive charge on the last APC in the line went off causing the APC to fly into the air briefly before being engulfed by a blue flame. This confused the Tau'ri not knowing that the Race used hydrogen to power their vehicles but there was no time as more expositions filled the air as more of the vehicles went up in fireballs every 15 seconds.

 **Finia watched on in amazement as the seemly unbeatable Race was being slaughtered like animals by a just three of these Tau'ri and one was firing at them from extremely distance.** She watched her mother and family members cower in fear beside the barn where they had been guarded even as the Race fell around them. The handful of living soldiers of the race fell back as more fire came in, they moved back toward the Northern field away from her. They were using her family's home for cover but so was the Tau'ri as the two of them broke cover and advanced on the much larger force while the third keep up the fire. One rushed over to where her family was cowering getting down on one knee behind a stone wall by the barn and firing at the Race. He pointed in the direction of her hiding spot and finally her family ran toward them.

 **The race for their part had no idea what was really happening, their radios where not working and they were under heavy fire.**

"A large group of the crawlers must have gotten their claw less hands on our weapons!" yelled one of the infantry males as he fired in the general direction of his enemy. He could see multiple bodies of his friends all dead before him, their blood sinking into the soil.

"Where is our carriers, they should be supporting us?" yelled another one

"They are gone, I can see the flames they must have gotten their claws on explosives too." cursed a different male as they saw a figure run across a small patch of open ground between the house and where the native vantic where hiding behind a low wall. For a brief moment, they stopped firing they couldn't believe what their eyes showed them, it was as tall as a Vantic but it wasn't a crawler. It ran on two legs like a member of the race but it was clearly not that either. They couldn't make out much details about it, it was wearing wrappings but it was patterned to blend in with the background making it hard to see. It looked like it was wearing a full head helmet like a space suit but it carried a strange rifle in its claw less hands.

"By the Emperor what is that?" asked one of the males as he stood up a little to get a better view only to have a bullet come smashing through his helmet covering his squad mates with his blood.

"NO!" yelled another male as he fired at the wall which began to explode with flying chips of stones but he didn't think any of his rounds where getting through. This was confirmed as the barrel of the gun the unknown attacker was holding poked out and opened fire. Somehow the rounds where actually hitting very close to him, he had no idea that the gun had a camera on it allowing the shooter to aim while behind cover.

 **Back behind the attack line the female Tau'ri special force member knelt behind a large wooden post on the edge of the field.** She pointed the civilians to the rear while watching the rear for her teammates, her eyes where constantly scanning the battlefield. The house was now burning and filling the air with even more smoke, it wouldn't be long until someone on the nearby highway spotted the smoke and called it in.

"Team, the drone shows attack helicopters taking off from the nearest Race military base. Someone saw the smoke and called it in." Reported the drone operator behind the line.

"Time to go!" she yelled as the forward most of her teammate fired a long burst from his rifle before running backwards under the fire of the man behind him. As he ran past he pressed down on the shooters shoulder and kept running past her and past the next two shooters in the line. Then with another long burst the next man pulled back pressing down on her shoulder as he past. She raised her weapon and watched for the race to advanced when one did she dropped him all while counting down from 20. At twenty she turned and ran, past the next shooter before running past the 1st man to pull back and the one who had pressed down on her shoulder. This was an old tactic and a good one to pull back under. It was basically a game of leap frog backwards only with shooting at anyone who tried to follow.

The Race for its part didn't try to follow, it stopped at the barn and didn't advanced into the field, all around them where their dead squad mates, of the 55 infantry males all veterans of the conquest that had come to the farm house only 12 were still alive the rest had gone to meet the spirits of emperors past and of those twelve males, four of them were wounded one badly.

"What just happened here?" inquired the highest-ranking officer to live as he looked out over the death and battle. "What by the emperor was that?"

"I don't know, superior sir." Answered the nearest male. "I wonder if anyone will believe us when we tell them what we saw?"

"I don't know." Answered the officer as he tried his radio again, it wasn't working but over the sound of burning wood from the house and hydrogen from the vehicles he could hear the hissing sound of multiple fire trucks. Maybe their radio systems would be working, that their system wasn't was already strange enough but that was minor compared to what they had just seen. Then he heard approaching helicopters, there was four of them. Three of them where military he could see the guns and missiles they carried on stubby wings and under the front of the aircraft, the fourth was a news helicopter.

"Are you seeing this in the studio?" hissed the traffic reporter, they had seen the smoke and assumed it was an accident. From their view point they could see an entire convoy of vehicles burning, a house on fire with multiple bodies of soldiers of the race lying in the field along with a sing Vantic. "We must have stumbled onto a major terrorist attack, we have never seen this many valiant males of the race fallen at any one time."

The Tau'ri team had reached the tree line and fell back deeper into the woods only to find over 40 vantic civilians most of them children that was now under Tau'ri protection. This raised a new problem, what was the Tau'ri going to do with them. The only thing they could do now is pull back and get the civilians deeper under cover.

 **The warm Spanish sun beat down on her as she sipped her coffee from the Starbuck's cup, she could smell the ocean and hear the sea gull's overhead.** Even with one headphone in her ears she could hear the ringing bells of the nearby Catholic Cathedral as it marked the hour. It's bells where joined by the call of prayer by the nearby Islamic mosque. She lifted her head out of her text book and looked around the busy park. While there were multiple smaller places in the still being built capital city where people could enjoy parks and nature this area where churches, temples and shrines to all the religion of the Tau'ri was located was the largest.

"Hello there how are you doing today?" said a young man about of age with her.

"I am waiting for some friends." Said Samantha O'Neill as she turned her eyes away from the man and back to her medical text boom. Not taking the hint, the young man tried to sit down across from her only to be beaten by Sam placing her foot on the chair. "Like I said I am waiting for friends and I am not interested in you."

"Come on Stan." said his friend who walked up from seemly nowhere to pull his friend away from someone clearly not interested in him and back into the park.

"Well that was fun to watch." said a voice from behind her as Sam let out a resigned sigh.

"Shepard sometimes you need to grow up." said Sam as she turned her head to see, her old childhood friend Torren Shepard, son of Teyla Shepard and step son to General John Shepard Supreme Tau'ri commander Pegasus Galaxy.

"And you need to lighten up a little Sam." said Torren to a women two years his junior however since there hadn't been that many kids in the Atlantis School, the two of them had been classmates.

"I will lighten up after I pass Dr. Chakwas final on Friday on top of the Math one all three of us have." stated Sam as she drank some of her starbucks coffee.

"You are luckily you only have two and you are Dr. Chakwas top student so you shouldn't worry about anything." added a new voice as Sam turned to see Ashley Williams whom Torren had met on the battlefield of Tauron walking up with two cups of coffee. She handed one to Torren before sitting down. "We have three finals on Friday, one in military history, then comes our class on laws and conduct of war and then the really fun one on in advanced math. So fun to be in school even if we will both be officers when this is done."

"You should both consider yourself luckily, a lot of people are leaving the military and looks like you two are on the path to make it your career." Said Sam "Besides Asgard healing technology is not the most easy final to study for."

"You're the one becoming a doctor not us." Laughed Shepard before shaking his head. "Besides it was your dad who roped both of us into this, some top secret program and needed to become officers to have a chance to get into it."

"And then he doesn't have the dignitary to tell us what the hell it is." Laughed Ashley before looking at Sam, unlike almost everyone else in the Daniel Jackson University was not a veteran of the Colonial War. She had enlisted days after the war ended, it wasn't for lack of trying she had been too young to enlist until after the war ended. Sam had followed a tradition dating back to her great grandfather on her father's side and her grandmother on her mother side. Like Shepard, she had enlisted in a different branch from her parents both who were Air Force, she had gone Navy. With luck, she would once she graduated be assigned as a doctor on one of the multiple warships of the growing Tau'ri navy.

"Did you see the news?" inquired Sam "About this lizard race, called the Race?"

"Yes, kind of self-centered to call yourself the Race isn't it. It is like your calling yourself the center of the universe." said Ashley as she drank her coffee.

"Tau'ri translates into those of the 1st world, some would call that putting yourself in the center of the universe." countered Torren he paused for a moment before attacking his only counter point. "Then again, it was the rest of the galaxy who gave us that name, not ourselves. Either way, I feel sorry for these lizards. They just walked into likely either the 2nd or 3rd most defended location in the galaxy and if the media is right then they are backwards in technology by decades."

"I heard centuries." countered Sam as she looked around, to someone who had grown up on Earth before the Stargate was revealed all the technology that had come out and was currently around them would have been breathtaking, to Sam who had been born on Atlantis before moving to Valhalla when she was in the 4th grade all the advanced technology was normal. "We are still in the process of integrating all the Asgard and Ancient technology into our new society."

"True, but question I know that the Supergate is the most defended spot in this galaxy but what is the second most if not Earth?" inquired Ashley. The Supergate which currently linked the Milkway Galaxy to the Ori galaxy had been the main path of the Ori Invasion years ago. While the Ori had fallen and their galaxy had fallen into a massive multi sided civil war the threat of invasion from the supergate had meant it was the most defended area in space in the Galaxy. Ships form each of the Free Jaffa nations and each of the Lucian Alliance nations where stationed there along with more Tau'ri defense stations then Earth or Valhalla combined formed a force that would in theory stop anything coming through the gate to them.

"I actually don't know where the second is, but I would imagine it is wherever they store the black hole bombs or the other world destroying weapons." said Torren as Ashley and Sam had to agree to that. Those bombs most of all the black hole bombs which contained a small black hole in a time dalliance field could cause suns to go supernova or swallow up whole worlds if used. They would be heavily guarded and their location wouldn't be broadcasted either.

"Well none of this is getting any studying done." said Sam as the three of them went to work on preparing for their finals.

 **On Home, an emergency meeting of the grand council of advisors was being held in the palace, a meeting like this happened once every 50 years and was where experts in each field would meet together with the Emperor in attendance**. It was here that they would plan the path that the Empire would take they would form detailed plans for the next century with gradually rougher outlines of plans for an additional two hundred years. That way the empire would know what the next 300 years would generally look like, that system had worked and worked very well since Home was unified but now a new threat had appeared and one that none of the experts had ever expected to see.

Emperor Risson sat on his throne as in groups of three the experts entered the throne room, the head of each department stood in the center with a trusted aid to his or her right and another lesser underling holding a banner with the seal of their department on it. Once they entered they made the special posturer of respected reserved for the Emperor himself before moving to stands which had been moved into the throne room. Normally these stands would sit in storage but they had been rushed out and set up for this meeting. Finally, the last expert entered the room, the head of the ocean research department. Given that the oceans on home was so small this department was small and generally seen as pointless but the female expert would have a voice at the advisory council.

With that done Risson stood and looked at the gathered assembly before him.

"I thank you all for coming so quickly we face an issue that was not believed possible by any expert in any of the grand councils in the entire history of the Race. We face contact with another advanced space traveling Empire." Started Emperor Risson "We have these Tau'ri ships over our world and they have shown that they can take a hit by an explosive metal bomb."

There was a rush of whispers as that news sank into the gathered assembly. For his part Risson wanted to hurt the foolish ship lord which had done that attack without orders, however he learned that the ship lord had orders from one of his ministers, the minister of Shipping and Cargo transports of all things. Since the Race had no soldiers outside of a solider time, only police there was no official minister which had control over a situation like this. The department of Shipping and Cargo which controlled ships over Home, the Colonization department which was handling the Colonization process and the law enforcement department all had competing claims over the situation. That meant it wasn't the ship lords fault but the minister which had drafted the orders to shot at any ship heading around home.

"Proceed with the gathering." ordered Risson as he sat back on his throne.

"Our first order of business will be to decide which Minister will assume the primary advisory position to the Emperor over this current situation." said the protocol master, an elderly male who had served the past two emperors. It would be he who would direct the meeting while Emperor Risson would sit and listen to each side and each projected outcome before making the final choice on the path the Race would take. One at a time each of the ministers for the departments would make their case and then take questions from other ministers about their positions and what actions they would recommend. Then they would be asked what would be the results of those actions and what actions would be used to cause as little harm as possible to the citizen and culture of the Empire.

 **Over the heads of the Race on board the battleship Missouri, they were not waiting not fully anyhow. The powerful sensors of the battleship and other ships in the fleet was being used to good use.** They were gathering data on everything they could, they were focused on the lay out the Race's cities and location of key targets like highways, water systems, bridges and power plants. All this information was being put together into a target book, if they were ordered to carry out an assault it wouldn't last long.

The Eagle fighters would go in first but they would mostly be going after ground targets like fuel trucks and other road vehicles. The Race had no fighters so there would be no Air-to-air kill outside of cargo targets which wasn't that hard to do. Behind them would come the Taita fighter bombers to carry out bombing runs on smaller targets while the heavy condor bomber to go after larger targets like fuel centers. The Ospreys ground attack aircraft would follow next, it was the slowest of any of the Tau'ri attack craft but that allowed it to carry out ground attack missions like its Earth bond ancestor the A-10 Thunderbolt better known as the A-10 Warthog. There would be attacks carried out by the ships in orbit in the form of beam, rail gun and missile attacks.

They even had a plan to beam in marines to take the palace and the Race's Emperor. In total computer estimated the entire operation would take between an hour and 90 minutes from start to end. The total death toll among the Tau'ri would be max out around a dozen if they assaulted the palace, if they didn't then the number was likely zero. The race had no air defenses and outside of the police the closest thing they had to soldiers was this palace guard to protect the Emperor and he had multiple highly trained special forces teams in the fleet and thousands more marines. The races civilian deaths was the issue and so far at the moment that option was shelved but ready to be pulled to be used.

Admiral Hackett for his part was looking over this Lieutenant Moreau file, his grades where top of his class in almost every field with only two classes in which he was second in. The only two black marks on his records, one was his medical condition which was out of his control and the other was that he had a habit of breaking rules and talking back to his instructors. He often showed up the instructors in the simulator.

"Admiral Hackett, we have General Everett Young on the line for you." said one of his staff as Hackett turned to the computer only to see his screen saver change to the image of a much younger man. He looked half asleep and looked as if he was in her personal home office not his official office.

"General, sorry for waking you up but we have a situation that you may find interesting." said Admiral Hackett

"What is that, Admiral." yawned General Young the commander of all forces on Valhalla.

"We have a possible line of the element you have been looking for Zephyr." Reported Hackett as sleep left Young's eyes. "We don't have a confirmed size of the despot yet and it is on a planet under the control of a race which calls themselves the Race."

"You mean those lizard aliens which arrived by Pluto? They have Zephry?" inquired Young "They have the one element we are missing to make ZPMs?"

"On a world they have conquered yes." confirmed Hackett "A world currently in the middle of revolt. This raises an issue about what we are going to do, if we go in we are basically declaring war on an empire which can't fight against us and that wouldn't make us look that good to the other powers in the Galaxy."

"What do you want me to do." inquired Young

"There is nothing you can really do, but it is a situation that you should be made aware of." explained Hackett "I also want to send your RND department someone I think could be useful in the Normandy Frigate Project."

Both high ranking officers knew of that even after the end of the Colonial War, research and development of new warships had never stopped. Along with upgrades to the ships in the current fleet four new ship classes where currently under development in the Valhalla shipyards. One of them was the Prometheus Deep Exploration Ship but that massive ship wasn't the only ship being designed. The other three ship classes would take flight long before the Prometheus would launch, the classes would fill in roles in the Tau'ri fleet that hadn't been filled yet. One of those ships under development was the Normandy Class Frigate. The other two ship classes in development was the Druga class Corvette and the Houto class Pocket Battleship. The pocket battleship would have upset the Colonials considering it was basically going to be the Tau'ri version of their battlestars. There was other projects in the works as well, updated Eagle fighters and different kinds of Owls along with others where all in the work.

"Send me the file, I will pass whoever it us to the team in charge of the project see what they think of your idea." Said Young as Hackett nodded his head.

"Alright, I will let you go." said Hackett as Young nodded his head before cutting the connection. Young for his part thought about calling Rush to tell him about the discovery but designed against it, instead he went back to bed.

 **Medea woke up in her hotel room and checked the clock in the center table between the two beds, she still had about an hour before she had to get up and get ready to meet her best friends, boyfriend family and go to this Disney World Valhalla.** Deciding that she would rather take her time then rush, she got out of bed and got her cloths and other items from her bag. She looked toward Acacia and Robert who were currently sleeping together, with her head on his chest and both of them had a peaceful look.

"They do really look good together." admitted Medea as she moved toward the shower and got ready. Because she was already ready she didn't have to rush around like Acacia and Robert did when they got up, instead she was sitting on the edge of the bed watching the TV.

"Robert what is this Second Big Bang Show?" inquired Medea as Robert waited for Acacia to get out of the shower.

"Sequel to a show called the Big Bang, focusing on the kids of the main people from the first show." Explained Robert, "Not as good as the original, they pushed it into the future to make the kids teenagers."

"Seams good to me." said Medea "I don't understand the references but…"

"Robert, it is all yours." interrupted Acacia as she came out of the bathroom and took a position in front of the mirror. Robert moved in and within moments the sound of the shower running filled the air.

"Acacia calm the frak down." advised Medea to her best friend as Acacia worked out any knots in her long red hair. "You have meet parents of your boyfriends before, so this shouldn't be an issue."

"Yes, but this is different back on Libra I knew both of my high school boyfriend's parents for years and Robert is much more serious than either of those two were." explained Acacia as she started brushing her teeth. Medea had to admit she had a point, Acacia's two boyfriends had started out of friends before going out on a few dates and school dances, Robert was different in more ways than he was a Tau'ri that added complexity to the situation.

"Well yes, I know but still if you are so worried you make yourself look foolish it will not make you look any better." advised Medea before turning away from the TV and toward their planned schedule. "Just calm down, we are going to spend 10 days with his family so better to relax and calm down."

Acacia did calm down a bit as she began to finish up getting ready, she was nearly ready when a knock at the door caused Medea and Acacia to look toward the door.

"Who is that?" inquired Acacia as she moved toward the door, while pulling back her red hair into a pony tail. She opened the door and came face to face with a woman who was maybe 8 years older than she was, so maybe 28 or 29, 30 at the most. The woman was tall at an even height to Acacia who was tall for a Colonial woman, she had deep dark long hair and brown eyes similar to Robert. With a large purse over her shoulder and was dressed in a red blouse with a short jean jacket and blue jeans so looked like a normal woman but something was different.

"Can I help you?" inquired Acacia not sure what else to say. The woman seamed to look past her for a moment before smiling.

"You must be Acacia." Said the woman with a warm smile.

"Yes, do I know you?" inquired Acacia, wondering how someone on Valhalla knew who she was is.

"I see how much the monkey puts up those photos I send him." stated the woman which only confused her more.

"Ah, shut up toad." Said Robert's voice from behind Acacia as she raised an eyebrow.

"Is that how you talk to your favorite older sister?" laughed the woman as Acacia's mind went racing as she realized who was at the door.

"You're my only older sister." countered Robert with a laugh as he moved and embraced one of his two sisters. "Now what the hell are you doing here so early? Your train through the gate…."

"Was pushed forward due to military matters, that is the problem with traveling by Gate the military comes first." explained the woman with a shrug. "Mom, Dad, Lisa, my husband and the kids are down stairs in the lobby and so are grandma and grandpa. We thought why not find a place to have breakfast before going to check in at our resort."

Acacia's worried gulp was clearly visible to the woman, who smiled and offered her hand. She had expected more time to prepare, now she had no time at all.

"Where are my manners, I am Stacy Wright, Robert's big sister." Introduced Stacy as Acacia took her hand.

"Acacia Drivas." Introduced Acacia

"I am her friend Medea." Said Medea from the behind the little group in the doorway. "If I can ask a question, Monkey and Toad what was that all about?"

"Childhood nicknames our father dropped on us." explained Stacy with a slight resigned sigh knowing the two younger woman wanted more details. "I once tried to turn a toad into a prince by giving it a kiss, I was 4 or 5 and I thought toads…frogs same thing and I had seen too many movies. Robert got his nickname because he climbed a tree and pretended to be a monkey when he was a kid."

"And Dad never let that go for either of us." laughed Robert. "Just like he never let it go when Lisa, thought the skunk was a cat and wanted to pet it."

"But Dad, didn't call her skunk he called her Cat not as bad as Toad. Toad, Monkey and Cat what a strange man our father is." laughed Stacy with a roll of the eyes talking more to her brother than anyone else, before turning toward Acacia with a smile. "Don't worry he will not give a nickname like that to you, mom would skin him alive for that, they are looking forward to meeting you. He saves those for his three children plus his grandchildren."

"They…do know I am Colonial, right?" inquired Acacia as Stacy looked at her for a moment as if it was a stupid question.

"Unless colonial is a whole different species you are as human as me, what the hell do I care about where you are from." said Stacy before seeing the real concern in Acacia's eyes. "Yes, they know mostly, my two-year son old is too young to really understand it but I have told him."

"Thanks, we had a little misunderstanding with my father and it wasn't the best." explained Acacia

"I understand, but don't worry about it." reassured Stacy "You don't have to worry about anyone down stairs carrying about where you are from and what faith you practice, come on let's check you out and find a place to get some breakfast before we head to our resort."

"I still need to get ready." added Robert as he noticed the glint in his sister eyes, she knew that and had planned on it.

"Well, why don't I take Acacia and Medea down and you can follow when you're ready." offered Stacy and before Acacia knew it she was heading out the door to meet Robert's family without even Robert there. When they got into the elevator Stacy turned to her as they waited for the car to arrive.

"Please tell me my brother did warn you about our grandmother?" inquired Stacy with concern in her voice.

"No." said Acacia as her mind went racing. "What am I in for?"

"Well, Robert isn't just the oldest grandson on my father's side of the family, he is the only grandson." explained Stacy "All three of my Uncles all had girls and let's just say, my grandma really and I mean really wants to make sure that the family name goes on. Robert is the only one that can do that in her eyes, she doesn't really count it if one of my cousins or my little sister keep the name when they gets married she is old fashion that way. She will be asking if or when you and Robert plan to get married."

"Oh…" said Acacia with a blush clearly visible on her face.

"If you feel unconformable about it just let me or my mother know we will tell her to stop poking her nose into it. This is a vacation not an interrogation after all." offered Stacy with a smile as the elevator arrived and she got on for the ride down to the lobby. The lobby was semi full with people heading out early. Waiting in one area was a small group of eight people, they were clearly all related in some way or another. There was two couples at least a generation apart, the older couple sat on a bench with the older man holding onto a cane. Standing nearby was a was a man who looked like an older version of Robert, clearly his father while the woman looked a lot like Stacy, that would be his mother. A young woman stood with her head down looking into one of those wrist mounted cell phone/computers, that had to be Robert's little sister, if she remembered correctly she was almost 7 years apart and Robert was 24 so she would be 17 to her 20. The other man was taller and had a more muscle built but also had two kids running around him, that had to be Stacy's husband.

"Here we go." Said Stacy as she walked forward with Acacia and Medea in tow.

"Robert was still getting ready, so much of Military efficiently." greeted Stacy with a laugh but all eyes were on Acacia and Medea mostly on Acacia.

"You must be Acacia." said Robert's mom with a smile as Acacia offered her hand.

"Yes, I am…" started Acacia before getting pulled into a hug by the older woman. She returned the hug not really knowing what else to do but when she pulled back, she eyed her for a moment before giving her a warm smile.

"Well you sure do have red hair, that is something my son didn't joke about." Said Robert's father with a booming laugh which caused a sense of ease to come over everyone.

"Her hair kind of me of Ariel." Said the little girl, Robert's niece who appeared at the most to be six or seven.

"You know." said Acacia as she got down to the girl's eye level. "She is my favorite Disney character."

"Really, Elsa is better." said the girl in the tone of an all knowing seven year old.

"Elizabeth, that is rude." said her mother Stacy as the whole family had a small laugh as Robert finally walked up and put his hand around Acacia's shoulder.

"Sorry for taking so long." Said Robert slightly out of breath.

"You ran down the stairs didn't you instead of waiting for an elevator didn't you." Laughed Lisa before giving a playful grin. "Worried about what we would tell your girlfriend and her friend, big brother."

"No." said Robert

"You should be. We know stories you wouldn't her to know about." answered his little sister before taking a drink of what smelled like coffee.

"Come on let's get something to eat, I saw a what looks to be a good breakfast place just down the road. We can sit and talk we can't really check in for two hours anyhow." offered Stacy as they headed out the door.

 **The fire which had engulfed the farmhouse had been put out and multiple APC and troop transports had arrived from the nearby Race Military base.** Teams of experts had been assembled to gather the fallen and seal them up in plastic before they could be cremated.

"By the Emperor what happened here?" asked one of the commanders as he took in the line of the dead.

"No idea, the living males say they saw something which is impossible." reported another officer "They reported taking fire from an unknown creature which stood as tall as one of the crawlers but on two legs and fired weapons equal to our own."

The commander rolled his eye turret a sign of how much be believed that.

"I agree, likely a large group of crawlers got ahold of our weapons and used them against us." stated the commander as a low-level investigator moved forward and waited until he was allowed to come forward.

"Excuses me superior sirs, but I thought you needed to see this." said the investigator as he held out a clear plastic bag holding a shell casing.

"I see it, what of it?" inquired the commander

"Superior Sirs, this shell casing is different than any caliber we use." Reported the investigator "This wasn't fired from one of our weapons."

"Then what gun fired it?" inquired the commander

"Superior Sir, I don't know." Admitted the investigator as they looked toward the woods. "Also, there was no banners left behind."

"What?" inquired the Commander

"At every other terrorist attack the terrorist leave one of their families' clan banners behind as a sign of who did it." explained the Investigator "Here none was left behind."

"What are we dealing with?" inquired the officer

"No idea sir." Admitted the investigator "We have two highly trained tracker and five squads of highly trained infantry males coming, they will be here in a few hours. When they arrive, we want to send them into the woods to find the source of these weapons. With your permission superior sir, we will send them after nightfall the Vantic can't see well in the dark and we have the technology to see in it very well, we will have the upper hand."

"Draft the paperwork, when you present them to me I will turn both eye turrets on it and then give you an answer." stated the Commander something wasn't right, he turned his eye turrets toward the woods wondering what was waiting in those woods. "We will go in darkness falls, the crawlers are not active at night we will go in after them then."

"A wise plan superior sir." confirmed the lower officer "With our night vision equipment we own the night, the crawlers will never know what hit them."

 **Well I hope you liked this chapter and the short firefight with the Race, more is on the way. Now I would like to thank everyone who reviewed and I ask that you keep reading. Thanks Wilkins75.**


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10 Council**

The owl bounced and rocked in the howling storm outside, the black painted Owl was being pounded by the white snow. The Owl banked as it came in almost purely on radar, on the sensors nothing was there and to the visual eye nothing was there aside from ice and snow.

"Frija Base, this is Owl Echo 9A transmitting clearance code." said the pilot over the radio before pressing down on the control panel. The computer transmitted a code which went out and they waited to fight the storm.

"Owl Echo 9A, this is Frija Base." Said a voice over the radio. "You are cleared to enter."

With that lights appeared out of nowhere through the storm as the entire base turned on its lights. From above the base looked tinny with only two large enclosed runways similar to what could be found on a warship only much larger. A central control tower shot out of the storm, there was of coarse other buildings but those buildings on the surface where either part of the cloaking system or anti-air defense systems. A large chain link fence surrounded the entire base with walking paths for the guards who had to go out in the snow on patrol with the greater concern being polar bears then actual unwanted visitors to the base named after the wife of Odin.

The Owl came in for a landing moving under the covered landing strip, thanks to the shield it kept the heat in and the snow out. Inside was a whole squadron of Eagle Fighters ready for takeoff along with Osprey attack aircraft and Adders attack helicopters. The base also had tanks and ground vehicles to defend itself but None of them expected a fight but they were on alert 24 hours a day. The Owl moved down the runway toward the landing area assigned to it only to see multiple armed guards waiting for them. The Owl landed and killed the engines before lowering the ramp.

"General Young welcome to Frija Base." Said a familiar voice as General Young looked to see another former member of the Destiny crew, now Major Matthew Scott.

"Major Scott how are you doing?" inquired General Young

"Good but you know the drill." Said Matthew as another solider rolled up a cart, it looked like a tool chest of some kind but it had a hand pad on it and a long thin neck shooting out of the center. General Young focused on the eye piece on the neck as he placed his hand on the scanner.

"I am General Young of the Tau'ri alliance." said Young as he answered three additional questions before it finally turned green. With that done the cart was rolled away as Matthew stood beside his old commander.

"Sorry about that, but this is the heart of our research and development." Explained Matthew as Young nodded his head.

"Which is why in addition to a cloak the transport blocker means no one can beam in or out so I had to come in by Owl." Stated Young

"Well you could have walked but the nearest humans is almost 1,500 miles away and that is a nature science station with a 15 man crew." offered Matthew

"Not the way I would want to go by." stated Young as they headed toward the elevator. Frija Base was in the far north of the long narrow continent on Valhalla with weather similar to Northern Greenland. This continent had been set aside when they first started to settle the world, while the larger continent and the smaller islands would be in time fully settled this continent which stretched from North pole to south Pole and had the same land mass of North and South America along with Australia and India had been set aside for nature. Officially the only areas fully settled was a large area about the size of the state of Texas. That area had multiple military bases and live training area and multiple nature research stations spread out to study the Earth wildlife transplanted to this new world. That was the full extent of man's touch on the land, officially. Unofficially there was a another, Frija base the heart of Tau'ri advance Research and Development. The base was so remote and guarded that not even General Young commander of Valhalla could come without going through a scanner. The staff stayed on duty for three months and then had three months back with their families in the main part of Valhalla. "How is Chloe?"

"She is good, found out we are expecting before I had to report to duty here." reported Matthew as they reached the elevator which would take them down into the main part of the base.

"Nice to see that we are all getting a life after spending so much time away on Destiny." added Young as the elevator arrived and they dropped down into the base. The front of the elevator was made of glass as they dropped down they entered a large underground construction bays.

The bays where massive with enough room to construct 6 Tau'ri battleships at once, this was where the prototypes ships of the Tau'ri where being constructed away from any eyes that could spy on them. Currently only three ships where rising up in the bays once they were done they massive hanger doors above them would open and the ships would rise up into space for trails. The 4th ship class under development was the Prometheus deep space exploration ship and that design was so large it had to be constructed in the main shipyards elsewhere on the planet in the open.

"They are really coming along nicely." said Young as his eyes scanned toward the two ships that where closest to being launched. The first was the Houto class pocket battleship, it was almost half the size of a normal battleship and was shaped similar to a colonial battlestars only thanks to the Tau'ri shield technology there was no need to bring the flight pods into the ship to travel through hyperspace. He knew the designs of the ship, it would fall in the middle between a Battleship and a Carrier, it wouldn't be as heavily armed as a battleship but it would bring more space craft into battle and still be able to mix in the fight unlike a carrier which stood back and let the aircraft do the fighting. The plan was to have these ships be the center of smaller task forces and defensive positions.

The other ship was much smaller, smaller even then a Galahad class Destroyer or the Akula class stealth ship which were equal in size and the smallest warship classes in the Tau'ri navy. It was the Normandy Class Frigate, it was shaped like a block Y with large powerful engines in the two points at the end of the Y. The Normandy would be the fastest warship but it lacked any of the main weapons of the larger ships. It would have only a single Asgard beam cannon and only 12 anti-air rail guns which was folded into the haul along with multiple missile tubes. The key advantage it had was like the Akula class, the Normandy would have cloaking on board but it would have sharper teeth and a lot of speed. The other ship the corvette was just beginning to be built and was nothing more than metal beams rising from the keel.

"Yes, they are." said Mathew as the elevator dropped down under the construction bay until it finally came to stop only to see a woman standing there waiting for them.

"General Young, I am surprised to see you." said the leader of the science and research team here.

"I am sorry for dropping by so suddenly but this is stuff that couldn't be sent over communication channels." said Young as the researcher looked at him.

"We may have found two things you are looking for." said Young

"Oh, what are those?" inquired the woman.

"1st a possible pilot of the Normandy." explained Young as he handed over the file in his hands. The researched looked slightly disappointed, that was important but not important enough to wake her up in the middle of the night for. "And if our first scans from Drones are true enough of this element Zephyr in one spot to equipment every ship in our fleet with a three maybe even four ZPMs."

That caused the researcher's eyes to widen and sleep to leave them. If the Tau'ri had access to new ZPMs that would be the key to major upgrades and make the Tau'ri fleet already the major power in the Galaxy the unquestioned power. Currently the Tau'ri fleet was the smallest fleet of any of the major powers which after the ORI war had been building like crazy warships, however these ships where almost perfect copies of the same Goa'uld ships that had been in the galaxy for thousands of years. Dangerous and powerful yes, but one on one a single Tau'ri ship could defeat them with easy the problem came to numbers, they had more than the Tau'ri did.

At the moment one of the other powers going up against the Tau'ri would mean a Tau'ri victory but if they all joined together the Tau'ri would lose in a long and bloody war. Luckily the different free Jaffa and Lucian Alliance groups distrusted each other and couldn't come together to challenge the Tau'ri. With ZPMs on the ships that would shift so that it would be likely that even united the other powers in the Galaxy couldn't take on the Tau'ri and win. The other powers would also be slow to adapt, the Goa'uld who had enslaved the galaxy for thousands of years hadn't really taught their slave labor how something worked only how to put it together. So while they could build ships, they didn't understand for the most part how they worked and that made making upgrades hard.

"This is a game changer, where is it?" inquired the researcher

"Only a couple light years from Earth actually, on a world occupied by an alien race called the Race." Explained Young "The Odyssey is on route to confirm just how big this despot is and how much is actually there and then we have to decide to either back the native rebels on the planet or make a deal with this Race. Either way once our leaders get this report we will get you the material you need to make ZPMs."

"If this world is so close to Earth, it could be the source of the Zephry that the Ancients used." Added the researcher "That is something we will have to consider as well, the Ancients may have left something behind."

"We should know in a couple of hours, after the Odyssey arrives and it's teams do more surveys." Explained General Young.

"I bet Rush leaped for joy when you told him." Said the researcher

"I haven't told him yet." admitted Young with a smirk. "He is overworked let him focus on other things."

"Then he will hit the ceiling in anger when he finds out he was the last to know." laughed the researcher as Young smirked.

 **Leonis was the heart of Colonial industry and the current home of former Colonial Navy Viper Pilot, Kara Thrace.** All around her the sound of people chatting and enjoying their lunch hour was driving Kara Thrace best pilot in the Colonial Navy up the wall. She was one of the few pilots in the colonial navy who could confirm a kill on a Tau'ri Eagle fighter. There was of course more than one Eagle shot down during the war but almost none of the pilots who had done so lived through the war or could confirm the kill. Even with her war record and pull among the highest in the newly formed colonial military she had been forced out of the military when the new budget gutted the colonial military. Her long record of insubordination and talking back to officers had marked her to be forced out of the military. Back before the war, those actions where accepted because it was hard to get people to join or stay in the military when they could make more money as a civilian. Now with a military a shadow of its former self, she had been forced out.

"So I got my vacation approved." Said a young pilot across from her in the lunch room. "In about a month, I get to go speak to my former high school about what I did in the war."

"And what did you do?" inquired Kara with annoyance "If memory servers, you had just finished pilots training and was shot down almost at once."

"I did shoot up a Tau'ri tank." countered the young man, she couldn't remember his name only that he was from Libra, the 1st world to surrender and one of four worlds which wasn't in depression. Aquaira and Libra being the favorites of the Tau'ri where in an economic boom and Caprica and Tauron had jobs rebuilding everything the Tau'ri had destroyed in the war. Outside of those worlds the colonial economy was in the toilet and with unemployment almost 20% on some worlds but it was getting slightly better compared to right after the war.

"And you didn't even destroy it." added another one of the pilots as a roar filled the air. "Looks like the Tau'ri transport is here."

"Fraken great." said Kara as she looked out the window of the break room toward a large black Tau'ri transport coming in for a landing. Waiting for it was multiple cargo containers full of colonial Vipers, Vipers that the other men and women here had made and she and the other pilots had test flown. There were rows after rows of them, enough to fill out a small fleet of Colonial battlestars and all of them where going to the Tau'ri.

"I wonder what the frak they want the Vipers for? They aren't even our most advanced Vipers, they hardly have what could be called a computer." Stated another pilot "They don't let us paint them black like all their other, instead we get a strange mixture of colors and the Tau'ri load them up and take them somewhere."

"Who the frak cares." said Kara as suddenly the Public Address system came alive.

"All workers report to their assigned break rooms for a security check." said the voice of one of the managers.

"What the frak is that all about?" inquired the young pilot as Kara looked out the window toward the Tau'ri transport only to see a couple squads of men and women in Tau'ri battle armor getting off the transport carrying large cases with them. They were not alone, behind them walking as if they were puppies following their masters came a lot more Colonial Military Police.

"It is going to be a long fraken day." complained Kara wishing she could have something to take the edge off but the viper production center she worked at wouldn't allow it.

 **On Valhalla, Acacia felt like a choice piece of meat before a pride of Caprican lions.** Then she corrected herself in her mind, the Tau'ri symbol was a wolf so she was before a pack of wolves not lions. She didn't know which would be worse, she had studied both native colonial animals and new Tau'ri animals in school and while not as big as the Caprican Lion the Tau'ri wolf packs where generally larger and more skillful hunters then the big cats of the Caprican grasslands. She was so lost in thought she didn't hear Robert at first.

"What?" inquired Acacia

"They got cinnamon pancakes here." Repeated Robert as both colonial woman turned to the page in the menu which had the image. Robert laughed as his family looked at him confused. "They don't have cinnamon in the colonies that and ginger, we introduced them and I swear we could sell them for five or six times the price here."

"Well you like the Sagittarian Peppers." countered Acacia feeling the need to defend her home.

"True, the only thing I like about Sagittaron." admitted Robert "Great spicy peppers but not worth dodging incoming gunfire form the locals."

"God, you even sound like a couple." complained his younger Lisa as she drank more coffee.

"So my son has told me you are studying zoology?" inquired Mrs. Lefeld as she locked eyes on her son's girlfriend.

"Zoology plus Veterinary." Explained Acacia "I got into one of the best schools on Libran and thanks to my Military veteran bill I don't have any student loans."

"I was a Veterinary myself." Stated Grandpa Lefeld with an old man's kind smile. "What sort of animals? I did mostly livestock and small animals"

"Well I am studying mostly big cats." Explained Acacia "I want to work in a zoo, maybe taking care of the Tau'ri animals, I am studying them as well."

"You guys introduced them to Aquaria when you terraformed it." added Medea "Not many animals left alive outside of the single cell range after the nuke went off."

"Yes, that was unfortunate, they hit a Naquadah deposit and that increased the force of the blast." Said Mr. Lefeld, the bomb had burned off the entire deposit of Naquadah on the world which was the only deposit in the colonies. "Even we were amazed by that, must have been worse for you."

"War is Tartarus." said Acacia with a heavy sigh.

"War is Hell." Translated Robert

"But at least you two found each other on the battlefield. Kind of romantic if you ask me." added Stacy "I have even seen the video of it."

"There is a video of it?" inquired Acacia as she turned and looked at Robert for his part he shrugged.

"Not that surprising all our power armor comes equipped with cameras to document everything." explained Robert.

"They aren't available to the public, I work for Daniel Jackson University on Earth as an administrator and I asked the record department to pull it up for me." explained Stacy as she looked at Medea. "You are in it too."

"I assumed, I lost my legs on the battlefield and got new cloned ones from you all." Added Medea tapping her legs. "Or I would be moving around on a wheelchair right now."

"So how much longer do you have on your schooling?" inquired Grandma Lefeld who had been sitting back studying Acacia like Acacia herself would study one of the animals under her care. Seeing how it reacted to different things and gathering information to make a judgement call.

"It is a 4 year program and I just finished the 1st semester of my second year." explained Acacai "So I have just under 3 years left in my program."

"Shorter then my study in police and criminology, but I have to work around military posting." explained Robert as the server arrived to take their orders and the talk changed as the children of Stacy took over the talk as they turned to what they wanted to do on the vacation. Only when the food arrived did they return to more adult conversation.

"And what do you do for a living?" inquired Acacia as she decided to ask the questions instead of being asked the Questions.

"Well, I work for a military as a civilian contractor." explained Stacy's husband Mike. "I mostly arrange shipments between your colonies and Valhalla and then sending all the equipment we are getting to their proper destination across this galaxy and the Pegasus galaxy."

"What equipment?" inquired Medea

"Mostly military, your vipers are the top thing we move." explained Mike as both colonial woman looked at each other in confusion.

"Wait, why would you want our vipers your Eagles crushed them in the war." inquired Acacia

"The Eagle is the best space superior fighter in the galaxy at the moment, two galaxies if you count Pegasus but the thing is the Eagle is a complex machine." Stated Mike "It takes a lot of people in the form of ground crew and equipment personal to keep an Eagle combat ready and it uses a lot of missiles. Those are two problems your vipers don't have, they use bullets and cannon shells those are easy to make and the stripped-down version we are getting could be fixed by someone with access to the most basic of tools and material. Also the Viper can take off from a dirt road or even a grass field."

"But why would you want a downgrade?" inquired Medea "I know one of our former classmates was a Viper pilot and he was lucky to get out alive from a fight with your Eagles."

"Oh, they aren't going to us." said Mike with a slight laugh "We are giving them to less developed worlds to defend themselves against pirates and slavers. We can't be everywhere and in the one case so far when slavers did attack a world with the vipers they were able to hold out long enough for our warships to arrive and to finish off the slavers."

Mike didn't add that most of the pilots who were really farmers hadn't made it back from a tangle with slavers armed with death gliders but they had saved their families from being sold into slavery. Which was becoming a major problem once again in the galaxy, if it had ever gone fully away.

 **Starbuck hated her life, she hated her job and she hated dealing with the Tau'ri and now she had an to deal with them more than normal.** A manager had come into the break room and announced that the Tau'ri along with some Colonial Military Police where coming in. The Tau'ri where going to ask everyone a couple of questions and anyone who didn't answer them would find themselves out of a job. Since the job market after a war they had lost was bad, no one wanted to loss their job. The Tau'ri came in and set up small briefcases on five tables. They opened them to show a strange looking device with a long pole which was about eye level when a person sat down across from it. She expected it to be a camera and that she was going to have to spend the rest of the work day if not longer in the break room as the Tau'ri questioned everyone.

To her amazement that wasn't the case, the Tau'ri would call up people in groups of five and sit one of them across from two Tau'ri with the device in the center. They then asked them a couple of questions the average number seemed to be two or three before letting them go.

"Kara Thrace." yelled the manager as Kara moved toward one of the tables and sat down in the chair across the two Tau'ri.

"Are you Kara Thrace, test pilot?" inquired one of the two Tau'ri across from her.

"Yes." answered Kara, she was going to talk to these Tau'ri as little as possible. The one asking questions looked at the other one who nodded his head.

"Alright, we have gotten information that test missiles are being sold and modified to be used as weapons. So we have some questions, since the war ended have you ever carried out or helped with another person or group carry out attacks on the Tau'ri or the Colonial Government?" inquired the one asking questions.

"No." answered Kara coldly as the second Tau'ri nodded his head again.

"Alright one last question do you know anyone who had helped or talked about how providing weapons or material to a 3rd group beside the Colonial Government or the Tau'ri." Inquired the 1st Tau'ri.

"No." answered Kara again.

"Alright, you are free to go." stated the 1st Tau'ri and he made a mark on the computer pad as Kara blinked.

"That is it?" inquired Kara

"Yes, this machine here can tell if a person is telling the truth or not and therefore we know you don't have anything to do with what we are after." Said the Tau'ri before looking down at his list of names. Kara stood up and stormed out angry at the Tau'ri.

 **Space ripped open just outside of the Vantic system as the TAV Odyssey came out of hyperspace, among the ships in the Tau'ri navy the Odyssey stood apart.** It was one of the oddest ships and had seen more battles then any other ship in the fleet, that by itself would have made it stand out however what made it stand out was that it had an advanced Ancient cloaking field. Unlike the current Tau'ri cloaking technology which was based of Ancient technology taken from Atlantis which replaced the shield around a ship with an invisibility cloak at the cost of a shield somehow the Odyssey was capable of having a cloak but still having shields up. This happened during the ORI war when Daniel Jackson using knowledge from the Ancient Merlin which had been downloaded into his brain somehow upgraded the ship to a level beyond even the standard Ancient or Asgard Cloaking technology. Tau'ri technicians and engineers had been studying and trying to figure out it worked for years but had never been able to copy it, before they had ended their lives even the Asgard had studied the cloak and couldn't figure it out. With this unique ability to have a cloak while keeping the shield up the Odyssey had become a favorite ship of Tau'ri special forces. While the other cloaked capable ships like the Akula class ships where more common the risked having a ship run into them while cloaked and damaging the ship in one way or another. They had almost lost the first Akula class ship during the Colonial war that way and because of that the Akulas never moved in under cloak toward an unknown planet without a lot of care and planning. The Odyssey didn't have to worry about being damaged but it had to worry about being discovered.

The Odyssey moved in alongside the Akula class ship the TAV Spartan and at once the operation began. Since the Odyssey was a Daedalus class ship it could carry more cloak capable Owls then what the smaller Akula class could, because of this the ship had become a key of the Tau'ri special forces. Five Owls prepared for launch the moment the ship exited hyperspace, each ship was going to be manned by four teams of special forces and another ship was carried a team from the SGC which specialized in geology and mineralogy it was going to be their job to confirm the findings of the drone. The Owls lifted off the deck of the Odyssey and headed toward Vantic 5, three of the Owls headed off toward the mineral despot site while the other two headed toward the team already on the ground.

 **On the surface of Vantic, Finia was hugging her mother and her younger sibling all around her in the wood was her family and distance neighbor children.** They were not alone standing near them where three of the six Tau'ri which had saved them, so far no one had gone toward them. Everyone was unsure who they were and they had just watched them slaughter the soldiers of the Race, something that they never thought possible.

"Maybe they are the monsters of the underworld here to kill us." whispered one of her neighbor friends in their native tongue.

"If that was the case then why did they save us? Why not kill us or leave us to the Race?" countered Finia

"Then why aren't they feeding us? Why not give us food?" inquired her neighbor "if they are good spirits then they give out food to those they save, that is what the legends say."

"Also have you heard of any of those good spirits killing or walking on only two legs?" added another.

"What the hell do these things eat?" inquired the Tau'ri special forces member only a few feet away, they spoke in English so not to be understood by the locals. "We have some MREs but what if we give them something and it kills them. Not really a good way to make friends with the locals and they are bugs after all."

"They are people, bug people but people." countered the female member of the team as she looked around the forty two Vantic civilians which was now under their protection. Her eyes locked on one of the Vantic going off the clothing it was the one they had first encountered when the Solider from the Race was beating him or was it her? "We might as well ask."

With that she turned and walked toward the gathering of civilians, they didn't cower away from her but all the dark eyes were on her causing her skin to craw. She forced her fear of bugs aside before coming to a stop in front of the one they had saved.

"If I remember correctly you are the one we meet in the woods?" started the female Tau'ri to this Vantic.

"Yes, I am Finia who are you?" inquired Finia

"Specialist Kim Rillis Tau'ri Special Forces." Said Kim "But that doesn't answer your question does it?"

"No it doesn't who, what are you?" inquired Finia as all eyes were on them.

"I think the best way is to show you but if I take off my helmet we will not be able to talk because of the translator program so I am going to take it off and put it back on, ok?" explained Kim

"That is fine." Said Finia as the Tau'ri lifted her hand up to one corner of her helment, she must of depressed a button because a hiss of air could be heard. The helmet front opened up a bit then grabbing the helmet with both her hands she lifted it up to show a dark brown skin but it had no scales or hardened plates. She had black fur on the top of her head which was branded back into a short tail. She had similar strips of fur over her black eyes and she opened her mouth showing white teeth.

"What are you?" inquired Finia before she realized they couldn't understand each other.

"We are humans." answered a new voice as she looked to see one of the Tau'ri still had his helmet on and was translating while the other had taken off his helmet to show a pale flesh with yellow hair with blue eyes. "The Race came to our home system to conquer, lets just say we stopped them and then we came here to see what they were up too."

"So you didn't come to help us?" inquired Finia

"Not originally." admitted the Tau'ri "But we saw they were taking you from your home and we entered the fight. Why where they doing that?"

"They want to take us from our families to take us to be raised to be like them." Said another Vantic "They don't have families, they want us to be like them."

"I see. The people back home will not like that when they release the video we have." said the Tau'ri as he translated what the Vantic where saying to the other Tau'ri who had taken off their helmets.

"So you are a different species like the Race, I thought you all where Ishias." explained Finia

"Ishias?" inquired the Tau'ri

"Yes, they are horrible monsters that drag the evilest of souls down to the underworld to be frozen for all time away from all light and warmth." explained Finia

"Sounds like you thought we were demons." Laughed the Tau'ri

"Demons?" inquired Finia

"Basically our legendary form monsters from the underworld only they drag people into fires to be burned for all time." Explained the Tau'ri

"Fire is warmth and light why would your underworld be full of that?" inquired Finia

"Just different cultures" Explained the Tau'ri "We have some food but we don't know if it will make you sick."

"We are willing to take the chance." Said another Vantic as with a nod one of the Tau'ri began to hand out bags of something. When they ripped into them they found strange food which was tried with some concern but everyone was hungry. While everyone was eating the Tau'ri lifted his hand up to the side of his helmet and began speaking in his own tongue. "We have Owls coming in, they will drop off reinforcements and take the civilians to the Odyssey."

"Owls?, Odyssey?" inquired Finia

"Owls are transports and the Odyssey is a ship, we will take you up there and the race will not be able to touch you." Explained the Tau'ri "Unless you know somewhere on this planet where we can take you where you would be safe?"

"With the Resistance." Said one of the older Vantic "We will be safe with them."

"You have an organized resistance?" inquired the Tau'ri "And you know how to contact them?"

"Yes we do and I know someone who can get us in contact with them." Said the older Vantic "He lives two days away but I can go get him."

"Alright, we will go by Owl once we get your people out of the combat area." explained the Tau'ri

 **President of the 12 colonies of Kobol Laura Rolsin really hated her job, she was in her office in Delhi she wasn't sure if she would ever take over the still being rebuilt Presidential estate in Caprica City.** She would go down in history as the 1st President since unification to not live in the palace but she was going to go down in history anyhow as the first to have to deal with an outside power after losing a war. She wanted to let out a sigh as she listened to this Priest drone on and on about how the Tau'ri actions on Sagittarian was wrong but instead she sat behind her desk and listened as if she actually cared.

"So Madam President once again our godless cousins force their will on us? They launch raids into our cities violate our homes and rights and kidnap children from believing homes." Said the Priestess as a member of the Quorum stood beside him nodding her head in agreement.

"Did you forget, that they are taking children that you already kidnapped and returning them to their families on Aquaria." countered Vice President Baltar as he sat in a chair to her left. As much as Roslin hated to admit it Baltar not her was the real power in this office, he would win election to this office whenever he decided to run, maybe he would let her have two terms while he plays behind the scene before taking over. Then his soon to be wife would likely follow him in the office, that would give them power for over a generation and they could shape the Colonies the way they see fit. On top of that any children they would have would automatically become players once they got old enough. The Baltars where on the path to become the most powerful family in the colonies like the Spiro family used to be.

"They are attack our sovereignty." countered the Quorum member

"Did you forget that the treaty we signed with them ending the war allows them to do that?" added the Presidential Lawyer "Along with their base on Aquaria and up to five space stations in orbit they have the right to carry out counter terror operations to recover the kidnapped children and any attacks on them."

"The holy scrolls say…" started the Priest

"The holy scrolls aren't the law of the land anymore, if anything the Tau'ri are." admitted Admiral Adama as the head of the Colonial military sat in a chair behind the two visitors. "And we should be grateful."

"Grateful." Snapped the Priest

"Yes, did you ever read the report about the Cylon virus they disabled before we went to war with them?" inquired Adama "That would have disabled our entire fleet and then Cylons would have killed us all. All of humanity gone in nuclear fire and while we have lost a lot in the war we are still here."

"The Tau'ri enforce their Godsless will on us." countered the Quorum member

"Not really, not to the extent they could." countered Roslin "I could be a puppet for them instead they let us do whatever we please as long as we don't cross lines mostly freedom of and from religion."

"Do you not see that they are taking us over in a more underhanded way?" snapped the Quorum member "They don't have troops occupy us but look their companies are buying up our companies, our children are worshiping the Tau'ri culture and they are importing all these new ideas and they are corrupting our children, our future."

Everyone in the room shared a look, they had a point but no one wanted to admit it. The Tau'ri where taking them over but instead of a sudden rush it was a much more clear and likely more successful way. Tau'ri companies had come in after the war and they were more than happy to buy up companies similar to them across the colonies.

To help win the war the colonial government had ordered large amounts of raw material and finished goods from large and small companies across the colonies. They had paid these companies with promises of land and resources on Kobol, they never got Kobol and those companies had tried to go to the government to get paid only to find the vaults empty. It was a miracle and a large amount of money from the Tau'ri which had kept the government afloat but it had weakened those companies and their Tau'ri counterparts had taken the opening. Major shipping companies like Hermes Wings and Colonial Express had been bought up by Tau'ri companies called UPS and FedEx. That was just one example, every field was being invaded by the Tau'ri in one way or another.

Some time it wasn't even a takeover but a straight up replacement, heavy machine companies which had been turning out tanks and weapons instead of their normal tractors and bulldozers had been destroyed. So Tau'ri companies like Caterpillar and Komatsu had taken over the market for heavy equipment for construction and there was a lot of construction going on. It had gotten so bad that the Tau'ri dollar wasn't just worth more than the colonial cubit but some business actually gave extra credit if people use Tau'ri dollars.

The Tau'ri where also sending in their culture, Tau'ri movies where extremely popular because they had movies and shows that would have never been allowed by the religious police on Sagittaron and that was a large market to give up back in the day. Whole movie theaters showed nothing but Tau'ri movies and in a few months, something the Tau'ri called Streaming movie downloads would be coming to the Colonies. The food was also taking over along with music and clothing style. There was going to a Tau'ri TV and Movie convention on Aquaria in a few weeks with the headline being the 1st Tau'ri film to be filmed on Tauron and set in the Colonies, John Wick 5. The President hadn't seen the movie series yet but it is a huge hit on Tauron and rumor was it was going to be a cross over with the long running movie series Hade's Hand which was about organized contract killers.

"In a generation, maybe less we may find ourselves under Tau'ri control fully as citizens of their nation not them of ours." Snapped the Priest as everyone looked around the room. All of them knew that he was right and that instead of having the Tau'ri flag flying among its brothers and sisters from the rest of the colonies with the Colonial flag over them all. That it was far more likely that it would be the blue and silver Tau'ri flag flying over them all.

 **Emperor Rison was getting board, he had lost track of how long this meeting had been going on.** They had gone from deciding who should handle the situation of a massive fleet over their heads on a military side to which department should make the 1st draft of their official response. After much debate, they had settled on the science and technology department with the cultural department in support. Next, they were moving on to what should be done to get every citizen of the empire back to a calm and normal pattern of life. That debate would take at least another two hours or so following that they would take a short break and move on to the next in a long line of items. If this meeting followed the others it would last at least 20 days and that was when they had everything planned out beforehand. With no plans that time frame was going to double.

He didn't know what took over him, but he raised his hand in the middle of the heavy industry minister talking about how to get his workers back in their factories. At once the entire hall went quiet, it wasn't unheard of and against tradition for an Emperor to interrupt a speech, it hadn't happened in living memory but there was some records of it happening in the past.

"Forgive me fellow Males and Females but I fear we may be missing something right below our snouts." stated the Emperor as he stood up from his throne, all eyes were on him and his golden body paint. "We have been discussing how best to handle these Tau'ri but we are going off unknown data. We need more information and the only way to do that is by talking with these Tau'ri. Hereby I am pushing the other issues to the side and we shall invite a small delegation of the Tau'ri down here. That way we can gather more information about the Tau'ri Empire."

The ministers all looked at each other, none of them dared to speak up against the Emperor and even if this was in their view a rash choice it had been made by the Emperor and had to be carried out. So the message was sent out to the Tau'ri ships and they expected to have to wait at least two days for a response. When an aid returned ten minutes after being ordered to send the message out to the surprise of everything he announced that the Tau'ri would send a delegation down in two hours.

"These Tau'ri are moving at a totally unreasonable time table." complained more than one ministers, even so there was a rush as they looked forward to meet a diplomat of a new Empire. The male who addressed them Admiral Hackett was in command of this 7th fleet. That likely meant he was equal rank to a fleet lord that allowed them to place him in the hierarchical of positions and they believed they knew what to expect when he arrived.

 **On Vantic 5, Fleet lord Straha was not pleased, while everything was going as well as he had expected in rounding up the Vantic young and bringing them to educational centers to be raised as true citizens of the Empire.** The problem was the number of natives fighting back, he had reports coming in of workers in high positions fighting the males of the race when they come to collect their children. Those natives where believed by planners to hand over their off spring with ease but they were fighting like it was their very lives on the line. That was bad enough and a troubling sign of what could be a major problem, a sign of what could possibly be a worse case outcome was what happened in the South where 43 males had been slaughtered by terrorist Vantic. Now he had a large force heading in to go into the woods after the terrorist.

"Once we get our claws on those weapons we will punish those who gave weapons to primitives." hissed Starha as he turned his attention to the plans to knock down the last couple totally Vantic cities and replace them with Race designed cities.

 **The Owls came in for a landing using a small clearing that was just big enough for a single Owl to land at any one time.** Since there was Race military activity nearby they landed under cloak which meant the only outward sign of them was the wind which was forced out by the engines which kicked up grass and dirt. On the edge of the field the 1st team had gathered the Vantic civilians, for their part they were confused at the sudden strange wind. Then they were more confused when suddenly a ramp dropped out of no were and they could see inside a strange vehicle. Ten more Tau'ri ran off the back of the ramp with weapons ready.

"Go!" yelled the lead Tau'ri as four Vantic ran toward the ramp, they were bigger then Tau'ri so while a special forces Owl could carry up to 12 soldiers or six if they bring down drones only four Vantic could get onboard at any one time. An adult plus three children, the youngest of them where the first to get on board. Once on board the Owl lifted off the ground and headed back toward the Odyssey.

"What is the situation?" asked the newly arrived Tau'ri special forces team.

"Looks like the Race has a force assembling to move in to get us, we need to old them off." Said the originally commander as the Second Owl came in for a landing. Once again the back ramp lowered as 12 more Tau'ri ran off the bird but they weren't alone. The Vantic turned and gazed at the strange creature, it was just short of the Tau'ri hip but walked on 4 legs. It was covered with hair mostly black and a deep brown and had what looked to be a tactical vest over it's body. It had pointed ears with a muzzle that shot out to a black nose with rows of teeth in it's jaws.

"What is that?" inquired Finia as the next group of her people ran onboard the transport.

"A German Shepard attack dog." explained the nearest Tau'ri as Finia looked at the two nearly arrived Tau'ri teams talked quickly with the team they had already met before taking off into the woods heading toward the Race the six original ones weren't even following them. Twenty Tau'ri plus this dog creature against whatever the Race was sending after them, she just hoped that they where all away before their rescuers where overrun.

 **Back on the Odyssey the commanders monitored the developing situation on the ground with some worry and some amusement.** They race had gathered a good size force of almost a hundred and fifty fully armored and combat ready soldiers however the six men team had been reinforced. There was now 24 additional Tau'ri special forces members on the ground in the woods. It would be those reinforcements who would carry out the attack while the original six stayed close to the civilians as a back up force.

"So Gentlemen looks like it is about to start." Said a middle level officer as he and a handful of other operators monitored the situation.

"Time to take your bets." said one of the technicians in the chair.

"Who do we have on the ground?" inquired the second technician.

"An SAS team but one is protecting the civilians and the Owl landing site, the two attackers are a Spetsnaz team and a Delta Force team. We have a 162 armed lizards coming toward them." said the 1st technician "So take your bets."

The technician thought about it for a moment, with the formation of the Tau'ri there had been talk of rolling in all the special forces groups into a couple of larger groups. That idea had been pushed aside because each group, be it British SAS, American Delta Force, Demark Jaegerkorpset and others all had pride in being Elite and always tried to outdo the other special forces units. That drive, that sharp edge, that need to outdo and to be the best was something the Tau'ri leadership didn't want to loss by merging the units together. So they didn't not fully at least, instead they opened it up so that any Tau'ri citizen could attempt to become a member of whatever special forces they wanted to try. For example, if an American want to they could try for Spetsnaz and if a native of Lanagara wanted they could attempt to join Delta Force or the Seals because all of them where Tau'ri. This allowed them to keep the drive but still showed unity.

"I'll take Delta for the most kills but the most over the top kill for spetsnaz." said the second technician. "Either way I feel sorry for the Race, those two teams will be competing against each other and that will not be good for the Race."

 **The soldiers of the race where forming up to enter the woods, the star Vantic was sinking below the horizon as darkness began to cover the land.** The front group of these males where all highly trained males trained in counter terror and special operations. These where the best of the best of the race and they were all expert level marksman and hand to hand combat.

"Alright form up. Remember the crawlers do not like the dark, they can't see well and they are less active at after dark. Keep an eye turret open, the crawlers glow under ultraviolet light." Ordered their small unit commander as he dropped his night vision equipment over his eyes and instantly the world turned red. The Race saw better in red light then they could see in any other colors, they could see more in the red scale of light then humans could. They also flipped on small lights on the fronts of their guns which flooded the area in front of them with ultraviolet light. "Now let's go get the crawlers."

With that the best soldiers of the Race headed into the darkened woods after their enemy believing that they were going after crawlers not realizing that they were not facing crawlers but where in fact going up against highly trained Tau'ri Special Forces. They were heading toward a pack of wolves and the wolves where ready for them.

 **Well I hope you enjoyed this chapter, I am sorry for the delay between chapters but while I like my Job and the people I work with for the most part. At the moment, we are doing 58 hours a week mandated time which eats into all free time. I hope you enjoyed the view into the Colonies and what Kara Thrace is up to, I have had a lot of PM and reviews asking about her. Now until next time please keep reading, Wilkins75.**


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11 The Wolves**

The last rays of light from the star Vantic was disappearing from the sky as the world before the soldiers of the race became bathed in red light as they turned on their night vision systems. Their eyes saw better in the red light compared to Tau'ri who used green in their night vision systems and what they saw was tall trees which hid the stars from view. They knew that a threat was in the woods, intelligence estimated a force of up to 40 crawlers armed with weapons stolen from the Race. So both sides in this fight would be equally equipped or so they believed, that would make the difference was training, the race had more, equipment the race had better and more of those as well and most of all tactics. The Vantic people feared darkness and where far less active at night, add to that they glowed under ultraviolet light meant they couldn't hide among the brush. The 162 members of the Race who entered the woods believed they would win an easy victory and the only problem would be finding the crawlers but that would only take time. They couldn't be more wrong, everything was against them and they would learn that soon.

"I have contact, two scouts for the rest of the squad coming up behind them." Said the scout for the Delta Force attack team. His helmet showed the world around him in a greenish gray, the mix of night vision, heat vision and other ancient/Asgard sensory technology allowed him to see in the dark as well as in day. The Delta Force and the Spetsnaz team had split the area of action up between the two teams with the SAS team staying back with the civilians. Overall the Race had set up a traditional search line, they had line of point men moving in pairs front of the main search body with another large line moving behind them and finally a small rear guard.

It wasn't a half bad design search pattern but the Delta Force and Spetznaz teams had seen this before many times and knew how to break it. The main fault with the design rested in the layout of the enemy positions, the woods was thick and had never been cleared in any way so the trees didn't form any logical pattern. They made line of sight very hard if not impossible, that had allowed the point teams to be taken out without raising the alarm. The Race had spread out their line to cover more ground but there was still large holes in it where you knew where to look and with the drone and life sign detectors that was almost too easy for the Tau'ri special forces. The first goal was to get behind them, that was easy as they slipped between the gaps and got in behind the Race. With the Race, all looking forward it was time for the fun to begin.

"Something isn't right." Said one of the few Race civilians in the group of males, an expert hunter and tracker he was one of a few civilians trained on how to work a firearm. He had been trained on Home to hunt the most dangerous beasts in their habitat, he had come to Vantic 5 to keep the transplanted animals alive and to study the animals here. There weren't that many woods on Home and none was this thick but he knew what it was like. "The woods are too quiet."

"What do you mean?" inquired the nearest solider as he ran his ultraviolet light over a large bush, nothing glowed so he began to move on not noticing the Tau'ri Delta force member who had a gun trained right on him. The Delta force member let them go, he had something else in mind. Quickly he put a claymore down on the path followed quickly by two more, two on one side of the path with the third between the two on the opposite side of the path. Even after so many decades in use the claymore in his hands still had the somewhat funny label saying. "Front toward enemy."

"The woods are not quiet at night, not like most males and females think they are." explained the hunter "We should be hearing the calls of the night creatures waking up before taking flight, we should be hearing larger animals on the move but do you hear anything."

"No. The animals know true danger is in the woods that is all, they are afraid of us." admitted the solider as he kept moving forward. Unknown to him he was correct but he wasn't the true danger, they would never know what was really facing them, as the solider passed by one of the trees a blackened tomahawk wielded by one of the Delta Force came flying around the tree in a deadly arch toward him. He didn't even have time for his eyes to widened before the tomahawk struck him. The Delta force member had perfect aim on his swing, the blade struck the lizard at the neck and thanks to the force generated by the power armor the blade went clean through, it wasn't a total decapitation but it was close with only flaps of skin holding the head on and keeping the blade from going totally through.

"By the Empir…" exclaimed the hunter, unlike the solider he saw his killer, he didn't understand it but he saw it as a pistol came up and fired a double tap into the alien's head covering the tree with its brain matter.

"Point team down." reported the Delta force member calmly as if he was talking about the weather, as he pulled his tomahawk out of the lizards neck and looked at their weapons. The design wasn't half bad, but he would have trouble using the weapon because it was so small for him to use with easy.

"They appear to be using black lights." He reported back as he looked at the flashlight on the

"I got intercepts from the drone that might explain that." stated a voice over the radio. "sounds like Vantic glow in black light."

"Like scorpions." added member of the team as the Delta force team began to pick out their first targets.

"Delta check in are we ready?" inquired the Delta commander as one by one everyone under his command checked in. "Delta is ready, Spetsnaz are you?"

"Yes, lets the game begin." Said the Spetsnaz commander.

 **Located in the rear most part of the center line the Race's commander walked with his hands behind his back as if he was a midday stroll.** He carried a pistol on his belt but it wasn't out and he was more focused on what he would have for the morning meal, maybe he would treat his males to meals as well depending on how many terrorists they captured or killed. He wanted to reward his males for a hard night work in the woods but he wouldn't want to see his account after it. He was just wondering if he could charge the bill to the base instead of his own account. When a sound he had never heard filled the air. It was unlike anything he had ever heard, it was a long cry of some kind but it didn't sound mournful it sounded like a call out to someone else.

"By the Emperor what is that?" inquired the Commander, he like every member of the Race had never heard the howl of a dog.

In the woods, the attack dog lifted his head back and howled like he had been commanded to do by his handler who knelt beside him with his rifle in hand. The nearby squad of ten members of the race had turned to face the source of the sound, with their eyes locked on the source they never noticed the three other Tau'ri opening on them with silenced weapons. The quiet pop, pop, pop sound of the bullets flying out and somewhat loader sound of the spent shell casings flying out of the gun was masked by the sound of another howl from the attack dog.

The Spetsnazs moved in on another 10-member squad only instead of using their guns they used their blades. With the howling sound drawing everyone's attention the members of the Race in the front most part of the Squad didn't notice when those behind them began to have their throats slit before being lowered to the ground to keep them from making a sound. With deadly skill the Spetsnazs killed eight of them without a sound, then on the second to last one he infantry male dropped his rifle causing the last living solider in the squad turn an eye turret around to see the rest of the squad. His eyes widened as he saw the bodies of his entire squad, the males he had trained with since before they left home, the males who he had slept beside in cold sleep on the way to Vantic 5 and the males he had fought and killed beside with now all lied on the ground dead and a group of figures with blades in hand was behind him. He began to spin around bringing is gun to bare when with a flash the creature nearest to him brought a knife across his throat. In reflex, he pulled the trigger as his rifle fired a dozen rounds into the ground to no harm at all to the Tau'ri.

The sound of gunfire only caused harm to his side as it caused three different nearby pairs of scouts to stop dead in their tracks and scan the area for threats. This was what the Race did biological when threatened they would use their independent moving eyes to scan the area of threats. Their stillness only made them as easy targets as range markers for the Tau'ri in the woods which had been stalking them in the dark with a few quick bursts of fire their lives ended.

"Report in!" hissed the commander as he waited for the different squads and the recon pairs to check in. When all was done two whole ten male squads where gone along with four recon pairs, he had no contact with 28 of his soldiers. Twenty-eight of the most highly trained and battle-hardened infantry males on Vantic 5 had disappeared with the only sound being that strange sound followed by a single burst of fire.

"Our point squad is one of those not reporting in." said a small unit commander "Requesting permission to move to last know location."

"Permission given." Said the commander

 **In the woods a single Tau'ri watched the group of ten lizards he had been stalking alone, if the Tau'ri had one problem was that their combat line was thin.** They were following the path he wanted them too as he looked at his heads up display inside his helmet. The Tau'ri battle armor was one of the most advanced piece of equipment that was the hands of every single Tau'ri solider. It was the child of three parents, first the land warrior system developed in the United States in the mid 2000's, the second parent was ancient/Asgard technology and the last parent was Kull Warrior armor.

The Kull Warrior had been the most feared warrior in Goa'uld Empire and they had been next to impossible to stop by the Tau'ri or anyone else when they first encountered them. They had shields, enhanced strength and armor under their shields which surpassing almost anything a person could have on their person. There had been talk by some Tau'ri of just making a clone of the Kull warrior armor for their front line equipment however issues arose. First it was discovered that the power source for the shields and wrist mounted weapon released radiation which would be deadly in the long run for the person wearing the armor, a short amount of time was not that harmful but after a couple days in the armor it would have harmful effects. It was also found that Kull warrior armor wasn't capable with the new generations of power armor that would give the strength that the Kull Warrior had through DNA manipulation. In the end a new design was needed and while it lacked the shield, which was still proving a problem to have with projectile weapons for the Tau'ri. It did have the same type of armor plating that the warrior had, add onto that Ancient computer technology and Asgard power armor technology. Mix everything and add a few extra bits and you got the Tau'ri power armor and it had proven itself for almost a decade now, through the final days of the Wraith War and the entire Colonial War and with upgrades coming every couple of years it wasn't going away anytime soon.

The helmet had a heads-up display which gave the wearer a night vision overlaid with head vision which gave them almost as good of vision in the darkest night as they would in the brightest day. It also had computer controlled adjuster so that sudden bursts of light would not affect them. Another interesting trick was the camera attached to the gun which allowed them to shoot around corners without exposing their bodies. The Delta Force member looked down at his wrist mounted computer which showed the life sign detector and dot marking the location of his three claymore mines. He waited until the center mass of the group was in front of the claymore before depressing a hand control. That control was linked to a wire which ran all the way to the three claymores, he depressed the hand control and the woods came alive with sound and light as all three claymores went off.

The squad of Race soldiers had no idea what hit them and most would never feel a thing as they were sent into the next world. The Claymore exploded sending thousands of shards and ball barring sized projectors into their bodies. The bulk of the squad was whipped out in an instant but a single member of the race survived the blast at first, he was covered with wounds and he could feel his body weakening with each passing moment. It strangely didn't hurt, it was just a numb feeling over his entire body.

"Report!" yelled the voice of his commander from his radio as he turned over to look up at the sky one last time. Flipping on his radio at he did, he was expecting to radio in what had happened and that he was going to die as well when he saw it. It was tall, as tall as a crawler but it stood outlined against the sky coming through the gap in the trees. It was dressed in strange wrappings and held a gun in his strange hands.

"What are you?" inquired the male to the figure looming over him, he had forgotten about his radio but he had spoken load enough for the radio to pick him up and broadcast his worlds across the entire command's radios. The figure clearly noticed the radio as it looked at it before turning back to look in his eyes.

"We are vengeance, we are hunters." It answered back in a strange voice which was also transmitted over the radio, causing every single member of the race to stop what they are doing and wonder what in the name of the emperor was going on. "You are the prey and we are the hunters, so run, run for your life because death is coming for you because this woods if full of wolves."

Then a single gunshot was heard and the line went dead. The last words meant nothing to the Race, but it did cause fear to build up among the soldiers. They had never had to deal with anything like this in the war, however protocol was to not fall back but to keep advancing so after checking to see who was all still checking in, he came up 46 names short he ordered his males deeper into the woods. At the same time he radioed the nearby base and within moments four helicopters took to the air and headed toward his location each one carrying a dozen males.

"Delta, Spetsnazs we have four helicopters heading toward your location." Said Tau'ri command as they monitored the entire situation from the Odyssey.

"Understood we will take them." said the Spetsnaz team leader as two of his team headed toward the edge of the woods, away from the race but with a clear view over the fields. They quickly prepared their little surprise.

"Alright time for us to light them up." said the Spetsnaz leader "Switch to flash rounds."

"Confirmed." said the members of the Spetsnaz team as they ejected their magazine from their rifles and pick out a different magazine and placed it into their weapons. It wasn't the magazine which was different it was the rounds inside the magazine. The bullet inside the magazine was not the normal round but instead it was taken somewhat from the colonials. The Colonials had developed high explosive rounds capable of being fired from a standard bolt action rifle, the round was meant to take down Cylon centurions on the battlefield. The Tau'ri had studied the design and improved upon it, for their own uses. The size of high explosive charge which meant it had to be fired a 50-caliber round, the Tau'ri had taken some of the explosive charge out and magazine the other compounds until it fit inside of a standard Tau'ri rifle round. While this meant one for one the Colonial bullet packed a larger punch the Tau'ri could keep up a rate of fire which the Colonials could never dream of which countered the smaller punch. The Tau'ri had gone a step beyond and began to experiment with mixing different chemicals into the bullets, one of those special mixes was called flash rounds. The round basically began a mini flashbang that exploded with blinding flashes of light whenever they hit something. The rounds where very useful for the Tau'ri because the visors on their helmets had the ability to counteract the flashes allowing them to see while their enemies where blinded.

Far outside of the battle, on the highway overlooking the farm where the fight all began news crews had set up camera trucks and reporters to broadcast the news of the military operation to those males and females interested across Vantic 5. Their cameras turned and followed the four helicopters which flew over their heads toward the woods.

"As you can see four more helicopters have arrived on the scene." said the reporter "We have no official word about what is happening but the helicopters are likely here to transport the terrorists to a secure location for questioning."

On the edge of the woods a pair of Spetsnazs set up, they were both on one knee just under cover but before them was nothing but clear farmland and sky for the missiles to fly in. One of them raised a tube about half the length of his body up onto his shoulder while the other prepared four missiles which he had brought with him in a pack on his back. He placed all four on the ground and gripped his rifle as he scanned the area both with his life sign detector and with his eyes.

"Ready." Said the shooter

"Clear." Said the loader as the shooter locked onto the first helicopter and pulled the duel trigger on the controls. With that a roar of fire a missile came shooting out of the back of the portable anti-air missile launcher, within moments of leaving plastic coverings fell away as small wings extended giving it better flight controls. Before the smoke cleared the loader had opened a hatch on the side of the launcher and put in another missile in. While he was doing this the shooter locked onto the second helicopter and once the entire process was finished, which took about 15 seconds he sent his second missile down range.

The Race's helicopter pilots of the race had never had a threat larger then weather or ground fire in the form of large and inaccuracy fire from simple Vantic guns. They looked at the missile alarm in confusion at first and did nothing at first. That allowed the 1st missile to strike with ease turning the flying death machine into a hunk of burning metal which fell on the large group of supporting males on the edge of the tree line killing people on the ground and in the air. The rest of the choppers alerted by the explosion of the first chopper tried to evade but the missiles were already in the air and it was a race between them and death itself and death had a head start. Less than a minute of the first helicopter loaded with males went down all four where down with all hands lost.

At the same moment the spetsnazs opened with fire running up their total kills as the race was blinded by light from any rounds which didn't strike home. Unlike the Tau'ri who's helmet adapted to the change of light with ease. The race who had night vision equipment was blinded by the sudden flash of light and when they did take off the vision gear darkness with flashes of light too fast for their eyes to adapt to made them helpless.

"We have no idea what is happening in the woods but something is going on." said the reporter as the camera turned away from the burning wrecks of the destroyed helicopters to the flashes of light in the woods.

"By the emperor my eyes!" cried more than a few males as they were blinded by the light. Some began to fire randomly into the woods but they hit nothing but trees, rocks and empty air. The situation for one group got even worse as the Delta force attack dog was unleashed and it ran into one of the squads and jumped onto one of the males and began to sink its teeth into the arms of the males dragging him away. His screams where silenced when a round form his handler ended the race soldier's life.

"All forces report!" yelled the commander near the rear but all he got back was screaming. Then someone yelled run away and it caught on like a fire on dry brush. The soldiers of the race, some of the best where running for their lives through the trees heading away from death. They ran past their commander as fast as they could.

"Stop I command you!" yelled the commander as he grabbed one of his males by the arm as he ran past him. Fear danced in the male's eyes and it was clear he was still trying to escape his commander's grasp. "You are bringing shame upon the Emperor, the spirits of Emperors past will turn their eye turrets away from you if you…"

His words where cut short as the male's body was racked with rounds and he dropped the ground his blood covering the dirt. For a moment the commander prepared himself to meet the spirits of emperor's past but no bullets came to great him, in fact all the gunfire had stopped and the woods was quiet and dark again. Suddenly light from the moon came through a gap in the clouds and through a second gap in the trees and he saw it. Standing there with a strange rifle in his hands was a tale less monster, he couldn't see it's face but it was clearly not a member of the race or any of the other subject races. If he didn't know better he thought it was a Tosevite but that was impossible, then as the clouds moved back in and the darkness fell over the woods again. That strange sound which started the whole thing was heard again and it was the commander who turned and ran leaving behind almost a 120 dead males behind plus 48 more males in the helicopters because each one carried ten males plus two pilots and untold numbers who died when the helicopters crashed into them on the ground. The Race had just taken its worse defeat on Vantic 5 and they had no idea what they were up against. In the end a group of 20 Tau'ri special forces had just killed an estimated 175 to 200 members of the Race military including 120 of the most well-trained soldiers on the planet in the span of around 10 minutes taking no losses at all. With their job done and the evacuation all but done, the Tau'ri fell back to the waiting Owls.

 **She had heard the first explosion when she and boarded the strange craft along with her mother holding her baby sister and unlike her younger sister or the neighbor kid with her, Finia looked around in amazement at everything around her.** She wasn't afraid as she felt this transport, an Owl the Tau'ri called it buck a bit as it flew. In total there was four Tau'ri in the craft with them, two of them sat at the controls up front with another one sitting in a chair facing her and her people. This one had a weapon clearly visible in his hands but while he seemed tensed he didn't seem aggressive. The last one sat by the ramp also with a weapon nearby but a much larger machine gun stowed away on a swinging arm.

"This is amazing." Said Finia to her mother who was still crying be it in fear or the lost of her husband and love of her life her daughter couldn't tell.

"Remember we didn't burry father, his ghost will haunt the land forever because of that." said her brother in a sad toon as Finia lowered her head in shame. It was their duty to honor their ancestors and now father was with them in the world beyond enjoying the warmth of the next world. For a moment she felt the same gloom then the Owl bounced again and she turned her attention to the front. She could just see out the windows at the front of the craft and what she saw was the last bit of white clouds fall away and the stars appear brighter than she ever seen before. Her two hearts ran cold for a moment as she saw a ship of the Race in the distance but the Owl flew past it. For a while there was nothing before them but blackness with distance stars. The Tau'ri pilots where speaking in their tongue but she couldn't understand it. Suddenly everything changed, one second there was nothing but darkness and then the next second they were flying into an opening in a building.

"Odyssey control this is Owl 47 we are inside the hanger." Said the pilot as he decloaked the Owl before heading toward to his landing zone. The Owl touched down and the back ramp dropped and the insect aliens he had been carrying got off. The pilot admitted to himself that the giant bugs did creep him out a bit but one of them he had seen multiple times look out the cockpit window in what he guessed to be amazement. He was half tempted to let him or her, he couldn't tell come up and have a look but the guard behind them might have a heart attack so he pushed the idea out of his mind.

Finia stepped onto the metal floors of this strange ship and her head began spinning around as she tried to take in everything possible. One of the Tau'ri jumped back when she turned her head all the way around to look behind her.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to frighten you." Said Finia in the language of the race.

"You can spin your heads all the way around?" inquired the Tau'ri

"Almost, we can look directly behind ourselves but we can't spin our head all the way around." explained Finia

"So like an Owl." Said the Tau'ri as Finia pointed at the craft which brought them here.

"Isn't that an Owl?" inquired Finia trying the Tau'ri world.

"Yes, but it is named after an animal from our home world which can do something like what you do." explained the Tau'ri

"I would like to see one of these Owls and your home world." said Finia

"Well let's get you a medical check and then some food before we take you to Earth." said another Tau'ri

"Medical check?" inquired her mother

"Don't worry, it is just to make sure any food we give you will not hurt you or your children." said the Tau'ri as the helmet translated his caring words into a flat monotone voice. Even so Finia and the other Vantic could understand the kindness in the voice as they were led away into the heart of the Odyssey.

 **In the Orbit of Pluto the TAV Yamato and the rest of the 1** **st** **fleet still held the Race's conquest fleet in check.** They had been in the position for so long that most of the crews had gotten board because just sitting still was never interesting. It was even worse for the officers onboard the Yamato as they monitored the Race's meeting. So far they had learned very little aside from the fact that the race moved as fast as a glacier, they had debated the possible military plans to get to Earth however each of those plans where laughable bad but the Race still went over each of them in extreme detail. The only two pieces of actual useable information was that a large percentage of their combat force was actually made of combat engineers because they hadn't expected a fight from the sword swinging savages. That was interesting but given that those forces where not going to account for much in a space fight it was kind of pointless. The only other thing of note was when they began a six-hour discussion of the warning they sent to Home and what actions their Empire would take to prepare for a full war against the Tau'ri and what they could do to hurt them as much as possible for their Emperor.

"They still don't believe we travel faster than light?" inquired General Leong as she walked into the monitoring room after taking a few to get some sleep and something to eat.

"Correct General." Said the aid as General Leong took a drink of her tea. "They believe that it will take us about 17 years to reach Home and they are going over estimates of what the Race could have ready to defend Home when we arrive."

"Should we tell them that we are already over Home?" inquired another aid

"We already have, they just don't believe us." stated General Leong as she thought about it for a moment. "Maybe a demonstration is in order, we are rescuing some civilians from Vantic we can bring them here to show them what we are capable of."

"General, may I offer up an idea." offered the youngest officer in the room, a Major from Lanagara.

"Speak." Ordered General Leong

"We have a pair of Hadrian class transports coming in from Valhalla in about half an hour, they can come out near to the Race's fleet and that may help convince them as well." Offered the Major as the General eyed him, with those cold calculating eyes which caused even the most battle hardened special forces members to gulp in fear at this tinny Chinese woman, she wasn't nicknamed the Tigress for nothing.

"Not a bad idea, make it happen." ordered General Leong as she took a drink of her tea "Inform the Race as well it should make a show."

"Yes, General." said the Major as he went to carry out his orders.

 **Even with the shroud of darkness around them the Owl carrying the members of the SAS team which had first contact the Vantic people flew toward another location about a day and a half away on foot but only a couple of minutes in the air.** On board was a single scared Vantic who looked around the compartment wishing he hadn't spoken up about knowing where to contact the resistance.

"Are you sure this guy is a safe contact?" inquired the Tau'ri leader

"She is a female, but yes." confirmed the Vantic "I hope I understood your map correctly, I am not familiar with the view from above."

"Well when we land we will make sure your right and then move in, if not we will correct the problem before taking you somewhere safe." said the leader

"Thank you." Said the Tau'ri leader

"Colonel." Said the pilot as Colonel Kumar turned his attention toward the pilots.

"What is it?" inquired Colonel Kumar

"Take a look at this." Said the copilot as he pointed out the window, the Owl had come to a stop hovering a little bit off from the location allowing both Colonel Kumar and the cameras on board to get a good look at the scene before them.

"My God." exclaimed Kumar as he looked at the camp before them, even at a distance and with darkness concealing some of it, he could tell it wasn't a place he would want to visit. It was surrounded with a large 12-foot-tall wall topped with what seemed to be thin metal strips, maybe the Race's version of barb wire. Watch towers stood about every 20 yards and armed guards patrolled the area along the outside of the wall and likely the inside of the wall as well. That wasn't what really stood out, it was all the low-lying buildings on the other side, they looked like warehouses and being moved around at gunpoint where Vantic civilians.

"So I am not the only own getting a holocaust feeling from this place." reported the pilot as the Owl began to circle the area getting it from every view it could.

"What is it?" inquired Kumar

"A reeducation center." Said the Vantic behind them. "That is where they put their own children and now ours and to be raised as true citizens of the Empire, they have them all over the planet but they have never been under military control before."

"Broadcast this back to Earth at once." Ordered Kumar as the Owl circled and began to document everything it could see. They took some time to do this but soon they found themselves outside of a darkened farmhouse with a 4-lane highway about a quarter of a mile away. The Owl touched down on the front yard as the Vantic stepped off the back ramp with four of the 6-member Tau'ri team with him. They moved to the front door with two of them moving to either side of the door while the other two moved to the corners of the house.

It took a couple of moments after their local guild knocked on the door for a candle to begin burning inside the house and after a short while another Vantic appeared in the doorway. She wore different clothing then the one they had as a guide but to the Tau'ri it was impossible to tell which one was the female and which was the male.

"Vaince?" said the female holding the candle "What are you doing here?"

"Janiea, we need to contact the Prince and the resistance." Said Vaince

"We?" inquired Janiea as she held the candle stand in her one hand and the other on the door handle ready to slam it shut and run.

"Sorry for waking you, but we mean you no harm." greeted Colonel Krum as Janiea's head snapped toward the source and saw the strange figure holding a weapon. "We are Tau'ri and we have come to help, but to do that we need to make contact with the resistance leadership on this planet."

"Janiea, these Tau'ri have already fought for us." Said Vaince as he raised both hands into the air and tilted his head down. "I swear by the spirits of the ancestors that they are our friends."

They waited for a moment then Janiea stepped back.

"Come on it." Said Janiea.

 **On Earth President Carter was facing a choice of her own, she sat behind the desk in the office she wouldn't officially take over for another two weeks but was unofficially hers already.** She had in her hands reports about the mineral deposits on Vantic 5 of the key element to make ZPMs, Zephyr and if anything, the depot was growing in size and there was some evidence that there could be many more depots of the rarest element in two known galaxies on this planet. Some experts even went as far to predict based on the limited evidence they currently had that the element was as common as Oil is on Earth but that was still to be confirmed. If that turned out to be the case then they may have an almost unlimited access to key element to make ZPMs. The issue was that it was on an alien occupied world.

"I could easily sell sending in the military to liberate Vantic 5 and maybe even the other worlds of this empire, Halless One and Rabotev 2." Said Carter to Daniel and Jonas as she looked at the reports from the two Akula class steath ships over those worlds of the Empire. While those worlds lacked anything that couldn't be found anywhere else in the galaxy, the state of those worlds was of note. The native population of each of the world was only a small faction of the total population of the world. On each of the worlds the Halless and Rabotevs made up only about a third of the entire population of their own world, the rest had been taken over by the Race.

"The Race expected to do the same here, we would have been a minority on our own world." Said Daniel as he sat across from her along with Jonas Quinn, the issue would be that unlike Vantic 5 those worlds had been so integrated into the Empire that it would be almost impossible to break them away. The Race and its culture had totally destroyed the native culture of those worlds until nothing was left, there had been no evidence of the Race taking any of their subject's culture in any form. Instead they replaced and destroyed the culture, it was so bad that there was no evidence of what the Hallessi and Rabotevs had even called themselves before they were conquered. There was still time on to prevent that on Vantic 5 but the other worlds are too far gone.

"And if that had happened then the entire history of the galaxy would have changed forever." Said Jonas "However we may not have a whole lot of time, they are rounding up kids to be reeducated."

"I have seen the video of them shooting the Vantic civilian, that farmer. It sure will look bad if we release it." Added Daniel "Add onto that the video our Owl are picked up of their reeducation centers. Large walls, low buildings that look more like a cross between a Stalin Gulag and a Holocaust camp will not be seen well by the people. Even if the Race aren't killing the children, it looks like a camp and that is what the people will process it as."

"The issue will be making them relate to the people of Vantic 5, like it or not they look like bugs and that doesn't make people feel as much toward them as if they were humans." Said Jonas admitting something they all knew. "You said one of our teams is going to make contact with a resistance leader correct?"

"Possibly." Confirmed Carter to her Vice President.

"Maybe having him speak before the Tau'ri congress will get more people behind anything you decide." offered Jonas

"Not a bad idea, but I would still keep working on finding a peaceful way to make the Race leave." added Daniel "If the rest of the Galaxy found out about this being the key for us making ZMPs some of the other powers could possible consider a 1st strike. If we solve this peacefully this world will not even get on their radar until it is all too late."

"Agreed." said Carter as she picked up her phone and made a call.

"General Leong." Said General Leong as she appeared before Carter, before snapping to attention. "Madam President."

"General, I want you to send an order to the Odyssey if they make contact with a Resistance leader to bring them to Earth if possible so that they can address the congress with the hopes of getting support." Order Carter as she checked her watch. "In about an hour I am going to release the images from the power armor and our drones about the Race on Vantic 5, but not about the element."

"I understand Madam President, in about half an hour a pair of Hadrian transports are coming in from Valhalla. I am going to have them exit hyperspace near the Conquest fleet as a demonstration." Reported General Leong

"Very good." Said Carter as she took a breath. "Also General I want you and the rest of the senior staff to begin drafting plans for possible military actions on Vantic 5, ranging from small special forces arming resistance fighters to a full invasion."

"Yes, Madam President give me 48 hours for rough outlines with firmer estimates in 72 hours." Said General Leong.

"Very good and make sure that in each of those plans we liberate those camps." Said Carter as she saluted the general and waited for her to return it before cutting the connection. "Now let's see how things turn out on Home before we have to teach this Empire a harsh lesson."

 **Three Owl left the Missouri as scheduled and headed down toward Home, it didn't leave alone four Eagle fighters left as well formed up around the flight as an escort.** They didn't expect anything to happen but they weren't going to take any risks.

"Attention, Tau'ri shuttle crafts your coarse is highly dangerous." Hissed a voice over the radio "You will burn up, recommend you take action at once!"

The pilots of the Owls and Eagles laughed to themselves as they dove into the atmosphere, the edges of their wings glowing a bit from the heat of atmosphere entry but that was normal. The Tau'ri flight entered the atmosphere with ease as the Eagles formed up in a box formation around the three Owls in the center as they headed toward the Race's capital city of Preffilo.

The radar technician at the space port of Preffilo held her breath for a moment as she watched in almost disbelief at the speed of the seven crafts which were heading their way. The sky was perfectly clear which gave everyone in the streets and the multiple news crew a perfect view of the dark shapes heading toward their capital, the Tau'ri had painted their crafts black instead of a silver white the Race used. Cameras zoomed in on the dark outlines of the ships, three of them appeared to be strange shuttle crafts while four of them looked like killer crafts.

"They have killer crafts capable of both atmosphere and space flight." Said on reporter

"That should be impossible." said the expert they had on the panel. "But I admit there doesn't seam to be another answer."

The black aircraft flew right over the massive Imperial palace, the first time since before the unification of Home 100,000 home years ago or 50,000 Earth years ago ships, none Imperial Aircraft flew over the palace. Back then anti-air missile barriers and radar controlled guns defended the palace from threats from above, those where long gone replaced by gardens and public spaces. The news crews couldn't see that two of the three Owls had their back ramps down and a single marine on the heavy 50 caliber machine gun located on a swimming arm. The Marine gunners kept an eye on the palace but they kept their fingers far away from the trigger. They could look down and see the streets full of lizard people looking up at them, the cars and trucks looked like they had all come off the same assembly line and appeared to come in only two dozen colors. The buildings where all the cube or box shaped aside from the palace which looked somewhat Japanese's in style with some Russian thrown into the strange mix.

The cameras where looking at them too and the Race got their first images of the Tau'ri however the Tau'ri marines wore desert cam BDUs with power armor over it. Including a full faced helmet and with a tinted visor they couldn't make out much about the Tau'ri.

"Landing in 30 seconds." reported the pilots of two of the Owls as the third pulled back with two Eagles in support. The spaceport was rather plain as well, a mostly glass and steel building was maybe two hundred yards away from their assigned landing point. The entire field was a long flat concrete pad with markings for landing spots, kind of like helicopter pads. They could see a line of Police about half way from their landing point and the terminal building and the Race's shuttle craft rested in the far part of the landing area as well as hangers for repair and protection from weather.

"Ten seconds!" yelled the pilot as the marines locked and loaded as the gunner moved out of the way. The Owls never touched down, they did this in case of the area being mined. Instead the marines rushed out of the back of the Owl with weapons raised and ready, the marines jumped the 18 inches between the bottom of the ramp and the ground with ease and spread out. Some slamming themselves onto the concrete tarmac with weapons pointing outwards while others took a kneeling position.

"By the Emperor they are armed!" yelled reporters as they looked at the nearly twenty strange Tau'ri rush off the two spacecrafts and run into different positions. Some slammed themselves onto the ground with light machine guns raised while others went down on one knee with their rifles ready. About a 100 yards away, the Race's defense was around 60 police officers armed with batons and none of them visible armed. A single Tau'ri was moving back and forth in a semi hunched position scanning the area, so the cameras zoomed in on that male.

"Calm down it appears that these are here to protect whoever is on the third shuttle craft." Said the expert "Like the police and guard escort which follows the Emperor whenever he leaves the palace."

"I see." Said the reporter somewhat calmer but fear in his voice, it was almost unheard of for police on home to even carry a firearm. Only highly trained tactical teams carried weapons on a day to day bases.

"If I didn't know any better I would say that is a Tosevite." said the expert over the tv "At least the same body layout, no tail stump, no visible claws or snout, that is an impossibly."

"Then what are these Tau'ri?" inquired the reporter as they began to get over the scare of seeing armed males.

"Likely one of two things, either these are Tosevites that have been assimilated by the Tau'ri Empire and are now infantry males. Kind of like if we put our subject races into the military whenever we go conquering." explained the expert "Or that evolution has guided these Tau'ri down a similar path of the Tosevites which is why from this distance they appear the same."

While all eyes were on the Tau'ri on the ground, none of the Race noticed that the two owls which had been flying in the force had begun to circle and that weapon pods dropped away from under their wings. These pods dropped about 5 feet away before opening into recon drones which instantly turned on their active camo before heading away from the Owls. Pods also dropped away from the last Owl, and soon 6 Recon drones covered the Race's capital city.

"We are good on the ground bring in the Admiral." said the Marine commander as the final Owl headed toward the center landing area. Here the Owl did touch down and the engines began to spin down as the pilots began to flip switches in the cockpit. While almost all the Tau'ri where in their battle armor a single Tau'ri wasn't in his armor. Admiral Hackett sat in the back in his dress whites with multiple metals on his chest and a cap on his head. On his shoulders where bars which was graced with three golden stars a sign of his rank and a golden tassel ran under one of his arms. He scanned the last report coming from Earth and prepared himself.

"Admiral we are ready." reported the pilot as the back ramp lowered and a blast of hot air rushed into the Owl. Almost instantly sweat began to form on Admiral's Hackett skin as he checked the temperature, it was almost 90 degrees out there.

"I wish I was in power armor at least they have a cooling system." said Hackett as he stood up and prepared to get off the craft.

Outside a delegation from the Imperial Palace stood waiting for the arrival of the Tau'ri delegation, among them where high members of the court. They had made sure all their body paint which was always kept in a perfect state had been freshly applied so that they appeared bright and perfect. In front of the larger delegation was a group of five, the senior protocol master, the head of the security office, an expert on relations between the Race and other species, a reporter who understood he wasn't to ask any questions only document the events and lastly a flag holder holding the golden standard of the Emperor.

"This is going to be a day that lives forever in the history of the Race." said the Protocol Master "I wish we had more time to set a proper standard so that future generations can follow our processes and protocols."

"The Emperor declared this to happen and so it has to happen." countered the security male. "I am just pleased we talked the Emperor himself from coming to meet these Tau'ri."

"I praise spirits of Emperor's past for that." added the Protocol master as the black transport lifted off the ground. When it lifted off they noticed that a new group had arrived, most of them where in the same strange wrappings and armed however standing in the middle with his back to them was a figure in white. "That must be this Fleet Lord Hackett."

"Admiral, they call it." corrected the Expert on race and other species relations. "But that is likely the same station which means this admiral should show you the same respect he shows to members of his Emperors court. I wonder why he would wear white, white is a middle color rank if he is a fleet lord he should be in a mix of golds, yellows and reds."

Out on the tarmac Admiral Hackett looked out over the area with his own eyes, he was not impressed. He had seen the Ancient City of Atlantis and the wonders of multiple worlds across two galaxies a barren runway in a place which temperature and climate wise seemed to be the middle of Sahara Desert wasn't high on his list of being impressed for. There as a lot of browns, reds and golds in the area and very little in greens or blues like Earth or any of the other planets the Tau'ri called home. Then again to a lizard this weather was likely perfect.

"Well let's go meet the locals." said Hackett to a nearby aid as he turned toward the terminal and the multiple cameras finally got a good view of the man in white. They were taken aback as they saw the pink soft flesh with white gray fur around the bottom of a nose and around the mouth but none running up to the fleshly hearing openings. The cameras zoomed in enough to see the blue eyes located in the front and unable to freely move in turrets.

"That is a Tosevite!" exclaimed the expert as the man in white moved forward with four additional Tau'ri, all of them where armed, the party stopped briefly as one of them got a poll and a flag from one of the crates that had been carried off the last craft to arrive. It took only a few moments and a blue banner unfolded itself from the pole. The cameras zoomed in on the flag, it was blue a color not looked upon well upon home or any world in the Empire. In the heretical ranking systems colors of body paints and their patterns told anyone looking at a citizen of the empire what that's persons job and rank was. The patterns told the job while the colors told the rank, the lowest colors where greens and was saved for punishment and for those just starting out in their jobs. The second lowest color was blue and a whole flag of blue only streamed inferior at the top of the lungs. The other colors was a bright silver which was the higher then blue for sure but not the equal to golds, yellows and reds. The symbol itself made little sense as well it looked to be an upside-down triangle with no bottom piece and a circle on top of it. A larger silver circle with smaller patterns in it was also visible was also there but either way it was inferiority in the eyes of every male and female of the race.

"Is this some kind of twisted joke?" inquired the Protocol master as the Tosevite stopped a few feet away. For a moment, the Tosevite looked at the members of the delegation of the race, in glory more than likely. Unaware that to Admiral Hackett this little group of lizards was as impressive as some kids in Halloween costumes, they were short not even up to his chest and they wore patterns of paint on their bodies which made no sense to him. The banner also made no sense either it was a pure golden banner which lacked anything else in it, like someone had taken a gold colored fabric and called it a flag.

"I am Admiral Hackett of the Tau'ri alliance." introduced Hackett before the Race delegation could speak. Beside him one of his marines translated his words into the hisses and pops of the race. "I have been sent by the President of the Tau'ri Alliance and the Congress to work out the issues between our nations to avoid any conflict."

For a moment the members of the Race just looked at him.

"You are a Tosevite!" stated the member of the race in the center accusing. Hackett looked the lizard if he had to guess he was oldest because his scales had a more aged look and looked loser on the skin but that was a pure guess.

"I am a human not a Tosevite, that is your name for us but not what we call ourselves." corrected Hackett through his interrupter before repeating "I am Admiral Hackett of the Tau'ri alliance."

"So your Emperor allows conquered races into the military and rise to the rank of Fleet Lords and you must be the 7th Fleet Lord in your history if you control this 7th fleet." Said another lizard "how strange."

"Well your world is about to be turned upside down because none of that is true, I am not the commander of the 7th fleet in our history, we have multiple other active fleets across our space. I am only the commander or Fleet Lord as you call it of the 7th fleet, our 1st Fleet currently surrounds your conquest fleet while our 9th fleet is currently conduction a war game near Atlantis and other fleets are spread out on different duties." stated Hackett as the Race looked at him confused. "We have more important issues to deal with, I recommend that we sit down and talk before the problems before us become too great to overcome without resorting to drastic means."

 **Well I hoped you liked this chapter, until next time please keep reading. Thanks Wilkins75.**


	12. Chapter 12

**Important Note:**

 **I would like to take a moment to explain my future plans, I have been getting a lot of PMs asking when the Stargate/Mass Effect story will start and where it will take place. So, I will explain it. The entire Mass Effect story Reapers and all minus Humans took place in another galaxy and that is the Galaxy that the Prometheus is going to be heading too at the start of the next story which will bring the Tau'ri into contact with the Citadel Council and Reapers, I am likely going to put it in the time frame of Mass Effect 2, my personal favorite but that isn't for sure yet. As for when it will come, I expect this story to end between 20 and 25 chapters and then I will start with the Mass Effect Story. As for the Star Trek/Battlestar story, I will not start that one until after the Stargate/Mass Effect Story. Now enjoy the story.**

 **Chapter 12 Reactions**

The house was simple, with white washed wooden walls with what looked to be some kind of plaster of something to keep the heat in during the winter and keep it cool in the summer. For the Tau'ri it felt like summer but in truth it was closer to fall on this part of the planet and most of the Vantic people where preparing for what was likely going to be an average winter, a winter that could drop down into the 50s or even the 40s by Tau'ri standards. For the Race, which north and south pole at home on rare once in a decade occasions dropped down far enough for snow to fall having an average winter be in that range was too harsh.

For the Tau'ri the room was about the right size of a human to feel totally fine in, the ceiling was about the normal height and so on. The only things that really jumped out about the layout of the room was that the doorways was extra wide as if it was designed to allow people in wheelchairs to move through with great ease. The windows had wooden shutters over them and blocked out the light coming from the candles which had quickly been lite. The light filled the room with enough light to be seen but it wasn't good by the standards of the Tau'ri. A fireplace made out of stones lined one wall with a staircase large enough for two and a half humans to walk up side by side was along the other side. The life sign detectors showed four people in the house, however the strange thing was the detectors said that all four of them where in the room with them.

"Sir, report from the Odyssey, medical scans show that the locals have two hearts it can throw the life sign detectors off a bit." Said another member of his team, as the Colonel made a mental note and knocked down the number of people in the house to two Vantics and four Tau'ri members. This meant that now, the area was clear of threats.

"Please sit, sit." Said their host, the Vantic female, Janiea heading into the what looked to be kitchen of some kind which was located behind the living room, she came out a couple moments later with small glass cups on an off-color silver metal tray with a large pitcher of water and what looks to be small rolls of some kind. She placed the tray on the center low table and poured each of them a cup of water before offering him the cup. "Welcome to my home. If I may be so forward, you are aliens and not members of the Empire."

"Thank you and no we are not part of the Race's Empire, in fact they went to conquer us and found out that we were not sword swinging savages anymore." said Colonel Kumar using the translator program in his helmet to speak with his host. With that done he took the cup which was offered at making a quick flip on his wrist moment computer. Within moments the life sign detector switched to a quick scan of the water for any harmful to his heath. It wasn't a perfect system, far from it but it offered some protection. He waited until the scan was done which took a few moments then he tapped the side of his helmet allowing the front part of his visor to open allowing his host to see his slightly tanned light skin and his brown eyes, his hair was still hidden under bulk of his helmet. He took a drink which caused the two locals to communicate to each other in their native tongue which was a series of clicks which his translator program couldn't make any sense of. The on board computer had the races tongue of clicks, hisses and pops in the database which allowed him to follow but they had no source for the local tongue. The two vantic looked at him before the one which had come with them, Vaince spoke in the hisses and pops of the race.

"Sorry I forgot you couldn't understand our words." said Vaince, he like Janiea where sitting on benches but not in the normal way but long wise with the longest part of the bench running from the front to the back allowing their four legs to rest two on either side.

"That is ok, I can't speak the tongue of the race either, the computer in my suit does it for me." explained Kumar in English allowing the another one of his team to translate.

"So what are you?" inquired Janiea

"I am a human from Earth or as the Race would call me a Tosevite from Tosev 3. It appears that the Race had a choice between carrying out their invasion of your world or our world first, they picked yours and that delay along with the Race's belief that every society advances at the same rate they do. In the time they took to assemble their fleet, attack your people and arrive at our system we have advanced to a point far beyond them." explained Kumar. "The conquest fleet they sent to our world, the one which conquered your people is currently surrounded by a fleet of warships in our system and the Race's own home world is under blockage by a different fleet. Our leaders are considering sending more aid to the Vantic people and carry out military operations against the Race. It would help convince them if one of your leaders could come to Earth and speak to them about the need of your people."

"If you want to help us why do you call us by the name the Race gave us." hissed Janiea "You insult as by calling us by our oppressors name."

"Sorry, we only have the records of the Race to go off us and they didn't record what name your people called yourself before the Race came here. The Race didn't record what your people called yourself or this world." explained Kumar

"Forgive me, I shouldn't be surprised by that." said Janiea "The Race is self-centered to the extreme with only their worthless Emperor standing over them. We are Opochti the and this world is Ovea, it is our home and no one will take it from us."

"I understand, we recently fought and won a war against a group who tried to claim control over all of our race, humanity and the worlds we rule." Said Colonel Kumar

"Are you conquers as well?" inquired Janiea "Are you any better than the Race? Do you conquer and enslave those you conquer?"

"We are not conquering not in the way you think anyhow." Said Kumar "We have settled on un populated worlds and those worlds in our area of control that are populated are left alone for the most part. We try to open trade with them, offer schools, medical help and trading locations and in return it is hoped that one day those worlds once they reach a certain level will want to join the Alliance as Equals. Only a couple of years ago we had one world with over three billion people join our alliance and one of their native-born sons is our vice President which makes him second in command of the entire Tau'ri alliance."

"I see." Said Janeia

"Do you have a way to contact your leaders, so that we can get them in contact with our leaders?" inquired Kumar as the two locals looked at each other.

"He and the others of his team saved my neighbors and I, we can trust them." Stated Vaince "Remember I swore this on the spirits of my ancestors."

The Tau'ri had no idea that this statement was the highest that any of their kind could use, it was a kin to swearing on the bible or other religious text would be for the Tau'ri. It was a sign of deep trust and respect.

"Very well, I will contact the resistance. The question is how do I explain this to them?" inquired Janiea as she stood up and moved toward a line of candles in the window, with care she light two of the three with the one in the far end no lite. The Tau'ri watched as she moved to another window and lite only a single one, this one in the middle.

"A sign that you need to contact them?" inquired Kumar

"Yes, telling them I need to speak to them at once but it may take some time." explained Janiea "Would you like some food?"

 **If anything the meeting area that the Race had set up inside the shuttle craft terminal was hotter than it was outside.** The Race had sealed off an upper level of a large two-story lobby for the meeting, the lobby was set up with a bunch of ticket counters for different shuttle craft companies on the ground level with a large open space with a statue of some lizard in the center. The second floor wrapped around the lobby but was open in the center so that a person could look down at the lobby below. The issue was that the 1st floor was still open to the public and the reporters where straining to get images of Tau'ri delegation. The Race had freaked out when ten of his marines had followed him in and had formed a defenses position with four marines each at the top of the two stairs leading up to the second floor with a reserve force of two marines with him along with his translator/aid and the marine holding the flag. He didn't see a reason for the flag but the Race had one of their unarmed police holding one and this allowed him to have another armed marine with him. The rest of the force was outside guarding the owl, the pilot and copilot had that on standby and its chain gun and missiles would come into play if the Race tried anything. They of course would be beamed out but that was a card he would rather not play yet and so far the Race while outnumbering the Tau'ri forces had shown no visible weapons outside of harden plastic police batons and their own claws and teeth.

Hackett looked out over the crowd of lizard reporters all yelling up at him from the lobby, thanks to the hearing piece in his ear he could understand all them even if he had to use a translator to speak to them or put on a helmet to use the program built within.

"Are they ready?" inquired Hackett to his aid as he turned around to look at the Race's delegation to this meeting. He couldn't read their body paint but he guessed it told of their rank kind of like how his military uniform insignia.

"Looks to be about ready sir." Said the aid as Hackett looked down at his computer pad, he was getting up to the minute reports about the current situation on Vantic 5.

"Request the teams on Vantic 5 to inquire about the actual name of the locals and what they call their world." Ordered Hackett as he noticed one of the lizards turned an eye turret toward him when he said Vantic.

"At once sir." Said the aid as he used his radio to communicate with the Missouri who would send the orders to the Odyssey and the teams on the surface. Only to find out that the answer had been sent already. "Sir, the team on Vantic have said they call their world Ovea and their people are called the Opochti."

"Good." Said Hackett as he made a mental note of the names.

"We are ready to begin." It said to the aid not knowing that the ear piece allowed Hackett to understand him. They moved forward and stood across from the five members of the Race delegation, a table sat between them and aside from it being low by Tau'ri standards it was basically the same as one would find on Earth. It had a lamented top with polished metal legs at each corner, it was the chairs which would be an issue, it was designed for the Race and had a hole for a tail and was designed horribly for a human to sit in it.

"Sir, we can find you something better there is a field stool on the Owl." offered the aid as Hackett looked at the chair.

"Yes, that would be for the best this might take some time." Admitted Hackett as the aid explained the issue to the Race delegation who looked at Hackett and the chair in confusion as if they couldn't understand the problem. It didn't take long for a marine to come up with the simple camping stool and while it wouldn't win any prices for comfort it was light years ahead of the Race's chair.

"Now we can begin." stated Hackett as he sat down across from the delegation of five lizards, it was clear however that the one in the center was the real lizard in charge. One appeared to be just a flag barrier and the other looked to be a reporter and held a video camera, there was microphones on the table already.

"In the Name of the Emperor I welcome you to Home and he is ready to embrace the Tau'ri so that they can rise up to true glory." Said the protocol master as he began the talks the way that had been agreed upon. "We can unite our empires together under the grace of Emperor Rison and your Emperor bows to him will become truly great."

"No." said Hackett through his translator, that seemed to take the lizards aback right away. "We have not come to join your Empire, in fact we have a major issue with your Empire most of all the actions you are carrying out on Ovea to the Opochti people."

"What are your speaking of?" inquired the Race member in the center. "What is this Ovea and Opochti?"

"The people you call Vantic on Vantic 5, that is their actual name according to them." explained Hackett more than annoyed that these conquers wouldn't even recognize the name of people they have basically enslaved. "Our ships are already in orbit of their world and what we have found is not looking good for you."

"Are you threatening us?" inquired the center one

"We have major concerns." Said Hackett coldly, which was diplomatic speech which basically translated to a sword being pulled only halfway out. "It is hoped that we can come to a peaceful solution to the issues we have found."

"And what issues is that?" inquired the center one. "We have conquered Vantic 5 and by right of conquest we rule the savages there just like your Empire rules you Tosevites and any other races in his Empire."

"We have no Emperor." Stated Hackett as the Race turned both eye turrets on him, clearly, he now had their full interest. "We have no Empiror, we are ruled by a President and a congress of leaders elected by popular vote of the people of the Tau'ri alliance. From the reports we got your Fleet Lord Atvar called it snoat counting."

The race seemed stunned, as if they couldn't process the information that was given to them. It was as if the idea of a government without an Emperor was beyond their mental power, like it was such an impossibly that they never imagined it was even possible.

"Besides we Tosevites or humans as we call our selves which form the Tau'ri alliance was never conquered we rose from our home world of Earth and thanks to our advance technology gained by hard work, rediscovery of ancient technology and other skills we have become the major power in two galaxies."

"Ah…your lies are a clear that a hatching still wet from the egg could see through it." said the center one with a term which caused Hackett to raise an eyebrow at. He didn't really follow the saying but it wasn't too hard to guess they didn't believe him. "You are clearly lying, because it is impossible to travel faster than light and it is also impossible that you have no emperor because there is no other way to organize intelligent beings. You are clearly lying to us."

The lizard crossed his arms over his or was it her chest, Hackett couldn't tell the gender of the creature across from him, in strangely human way. It was as if he or she believed that they had just proven a point that couldn't be argued against in any possible way.

"You think so." said Hackett as he took a deep breath. "Tell me where do you think the fleet of warships which is currently over this world came from? You have radar, you must have seen that they came out of hyperspace at speeds which are very near to light speed and began to slow down."

"Near light speed, not beyond it." countered the race member, not admitting that even going that close to the speed of light was believed to be impossible. "Now let us turn to the issues before us, Vantic is ours just like Tosev 3 now belongs to your Emperor, by right of Conquest. We have brought civilization and culture to the savages just like your Emperor brought it to you into the light of civilization."

Hackett eyes narrowed in anger at the insult but he remained calm, he knew that his fleet could crush the Race's Empire in a day not just this world but on all their worlds. They would likely take more time traveling from each world then it would to conquer them. Outside of Ovea none of the worlds had any military force, he could fire on them from orbit and carry out air strikes, before putting troops on the ground if he wanted too. He could even call on the super weapon ship, the Ragnarok which had erased Caprica City in the 12 colonies of Kobol off the map if he really wanted to. Then he shook his head slightly, the Ragnarok was currently undergoing testing in the Pegasus galaxy and outside of his ability to get in a timely fashion. The Ragnarok was out of the question, so he would have to it the old fashion way if he wanted to bring the race back to the stone age.

"Now, you will start telling us the truth." ordered the lizard as if he was an General talking down to a cadet who has broken some rule.

"I have already told you the truth, the situation before us is making sure you understand the situation you find yourself in." said Hackett as he lifted his hand up and an aid placed an Asgard hologram stone in his hands. He placed it in center of the table and tapped it as a map of the galaxy came up, for a moment the Race delegation looked at it before the map was broken up into multiple different colored designs with the largest section being in a shade of blue. "This is the current boarders for the major powers in the Galaxy and the blue is the area under the control of the Tau'ri Alliance."

He tapped the stone again as the blue section became larger and in the middle of all that blue was a tiny section of red. The amount of red was tiny and far away from the nearest borders of any other powers. The Race was surrounded by the forces of the Tau'ri, there wasn't even another smaller power also surrounded by the Tau'ri like the Colonials or the Cylons.

"The red is the area you control; the blue is the area under the direct or indirect control of the Tau'ri alliance." explained Hackett, he had no idea that in the eyes of the Race blue was a weak color and red was a stronger color. "It comes to around 20% of the galaxy and while we are still in the middle of a proper mapping of the area we are talking hundreds of thousands of worlds some habited some not. We are also talking about an almost countless numbers of souls who are under Tau'ri control in one way or another. This is what you are facing, a nation which spreads out across 20% of this Galaxy and has a large base of operation in the Pegasus Galaxy. We have hundreds of warships armed with weapons which you have never imagined and that you have no defense against."

"What proof do you have? You have claimed all this but no evidence." countered another member of the Race. "How could you Tau'ri can explain your so call rapid advancement? You claim all this and provide no proof."

"I believe the fleet of warships in orbit is one proof." countered Hackett "When it comes to our advancement, tell me do cells divide at the same rate?"

"No of course not, cells divide at different rates but what does that have to do with anything." inquired the male

"Because you assumed that cultures and civilizations change at the same rate, they do not." explained Hackett as the Race came to face an idea they had never considered, that civilizations advanced at different rates. "Like cells, they divide at different rates some are slower like your civilization is while others are much faster in their rate of change, like mine is. You took three samples when it came to yourself and your two subject races and assumed that it was a natural law, it isn't."

"We have three subject races so we have four examples." corrected another one of the lizards, not realizing that on the computer pad in Hackett's hand was a target book for not only Home but every world within the Empire and an outline of a plan to destroy the empire in a single day.

"Maybe some hard evidence is in order." said Hackett before turning to an aid. "Can a Condor land on the runway outside?"

"Shouldn't be a problem." Said the aid as he pulled up a map of the shuttle port. They could have beamed them off world and onto one of the ships in orbit, likely the flagship Missouri but that was a card they didn't want to play until it was needed. "But sir, we could use an Owl?"

"I don't want these things on one of my warships for the moment." explained Hackett in English so that the Race couldn't understand him.

"I understand sir, the race don't use a runway like we normally use but they cleared off the pad of almost all their shuttles, we can land with ease." Explained the aid.

"Very good, with your permission one of our longer-range transports will land here and take a small delegation of your choice to Earth. There you can contact your Fleet Lord before coming back here." offered Hackett as he looked at the distances on his own computer pad, a Condor wasn't as fast as a warship or even a larger Hardin class transport but it could make the trip to Earth in about an hour. So a two hour flight time with some time there thrown in. "Will having them travel to Earth or Tosev 3 as you call it and be back in a couple of hours will that convince you of the truth."

"That is impossible so why are you trying to trick us?" inquired the male in the center

"No trick, the only other choice is that I show off some of the fire power under my command." said Hackett "Maybe a weapon test in some uninhabited space would show you as well. Would that be more to your liking?"

The race members shared a look between themselves, they were not used to having to make a choice of such importance without proper weighing of options and outcomes. The thing was the choice was clear, they didn't want some unknown weapon firing on their world even if they got to pick the test site. If the choices were between having to deal with this false front of faster than light travel and having a nuclear weapon because that was the strongest weapon possible going off the choice was clear.

"Very well." said the Male to the right, he was slightly bigger and was the only one who seemed armed, armed with a baton but still armed. By the way he stood, he was likely a solider of some kind, maybe a palace guard even so he wore gray body paint which wouldn't help him hide in a battle if all the guards wore that the teams on standby to take the Imperial Palace if ordered would have an even easier time. "I will make the arrangement."

"Very good." said Hackett as he nodded toward his aid to give his permission to the aid to send the order.

 **On Valhalla Acacia and Medea where already enjoying themselves to no end and they hadn't even reached the park itself yet.** The hotel they were staying at with Robert and his family was amazing themed to wildlife and that was something Acacia loved even more than most. It had large wooden columns of deep brown wood and a statue of two large animals native to Valhalla stood facing the two main entrees. One was a silver Deer, which was a larger than normal deer with silver antlers which didn't fall out and a cougar sized black cat with silver tiger strips called a Shadow Cat. She had read that until the Tau'ri came and populated the almost barren world with their animals those two animals had been the largest animals on the world. The woman behind the reception desk was much more welcoming to Acacia and Medea then the one at the hotel they had stayed at the night before, once she learned they were colonials she offered to send someone to help explain how everything worked.

"Don't worry, my boyfriend will do that." Explained Acacia as she stood beside Robert who smiled. The receptionist smiled too and without saying a word so his parents would hear a window popped up on the computer in front of her and Robert. "Approval for Miss Acacia Davis to have access to Captain Robert Lefeld room?"

Robert tapped the yes button and with that Acacia now had access to Robert's room at any time by the DNA scanner on the door.

"Thank you." said Acacia as the woman nodded.

"My pleasure." said the receptionist. "Looks like you are with us for 10 days and on one of those days your taking a trip on our wildlife tour."

"Yes, really looking forward to that." said Acacia "I am studying Zoology back home."

"Really." said the receptionist as she made a note. "I'll tell your guide about that, now I believe everything is in order. Captain Lefeld, with your military discount and hero discount your total comes to."

"Here." said Robert as he handed over his card as the woman took it and began to take down the information.

"Robert what is this all about?" inquired Robert's father voice as both turned to see a news broadcast on one of the impossibly thin flat screen tvs which was located around the lobby for people to catch up on the news real fast. It showed what looked to be a lizard like being forcing a bug like alien around at gun point. The next thing to come up had a warning about how young people shouldn't watch then it showed another one of those lizards murdering a different bug alien. Then it showed a camp which looked like one of those horrible death camps from the darkest part of Tau'ri history.

"What is going on with that?" inquired Lisa Lefeld as she looked at her older brother for the answer, as if being a Captain in the military meant he knew everything about what was going on in the galaxy.

"I have no idea." admitted Robert as they watched the news for a moment before heading up to their rooms.

"Looks like that lizard race called the Race kind of self-centered name thinks they can conquer Earth?" added Mrs. Lefeld, Acacia and Medea didn't counter with the fact that the name Tau'ri meant, those of the 1st world.

"Judging from the technology they don't stand a chance and the 1st fleet is surrounding them." added Robert as the reporter went on to read a statement from President Carter about how there was no threat and that the 7th Fleet had the Race's home world under blockage and that the Race has occupied a world populated by another race of insect like aliens. The actions being carried out on that world did not look good in the eyes of the Tau'ri, even the two Colonials watching with them was getting angry as they watched what was explained to be children being moved at gunpoint into camps. They couldn't stand around in the lobby all day and finally they headed out on their day.

After checking into their rooms, they were on their way to the main park using the monorail system which ran between Disney's two parks and the single finished Universal one and soon to be second one. It was a joint venture by the two rival companies to make getting around the area easier.

"Robert what will happen with that that insect world and the lizards?" inquired Acacia

"Likely the lizards will leave on their own or they will be forced out." said Robert. "Judging from what they should of their equipment, it not that good by our standards and we would have the advantages in almost everything."

"Well you had the advantages in almost everything and you still couldn't take over the colonies right away, for the 1st couple of months we were in a basic standoff." countered Medea, she expected Robert to get angry instead he nodded his head.

"True but that was because we didn't have the ships built yet, hell the three of us are the same age technically but thanks to the time dalliance we used to buy us time to build the ships I am older now then the two of you." explained Robert "Against this Race, we have the ships, we have the soldiers, if it goes to battle it will be over fast. A couple of hours at the most."

"This is going to be so much fun." said Robert's niece interrupting the talk.

"Let's not focus on that, we are here to have some fun." added Robert as they rode toward the park, Acacia and Media didn't even notice it until after the monorail made the turn to run past it. Even then the first thing they noticed wasn't the grassy field or the halfway rebuilt buildings, but instead it was the beautiful lake with the rays from the sun bouncing off the water. Acacia had just taken a photo when a rock bounced off the window causing her and many others in the car to jump back as more rocks hit the window and side of the monorail car.

"What the frak?" added Medea as the speakers above them came alive.

"Sorry for the delay, but the monorail station at the Kobol City ruins are no longer open we are proceeding onto the Valhalla Disney World station." reported the conductor as the monorail picked up speed as Acacia like so many others moved toward the window. There was maybe two or three dozen people dressed in normal looking cloths surrounded by police. One of the protestors held up a scroll, which she instantly knew to be one of the holy scrolls of Lords of Kobol.

"Kobol City?" inquired both colonial woman, as they looked out over the site where Tau'ri teams had dug up and preserved what remained of what the Holy Scrolls of the Lords of Kobol, called the City of the Gods. It wasn't that impressive, remains of some stone buildings, a couple of large rocks a road and that was about it.

"More Colonial protestors." Complained another guest nearby the two Colonial woman and the Lefeld family. "They have been at it for a couple of days now, I kind of wish that the police just removed them and end their little prayer in."

"What are they praying about?" inquired Medea as the man shrugged.

"They are Colonials, what else do they complain about their stupid religion." Said the man unaware that two Colonials stood before him. "They just can't it through their thick heads that this is Valhalla and it is under our rule, not their religious rule. I know the screen them before they come but that only works if they plan to do so ahead of time, if they decided on the spur of the moment to do that then there is no screening process for that. We gave them land to build a temple to Zeus and instead they throw stones because it isn't on the remains of the Gou'ald city where they were slaves. After the nuked us, that makes perfect sense."

"Where is the temple at?" inquired Acacia as the man pointed out the other window away from the historical site on the shore of the lake. There was a plot of land which was cleared and the early parts of construction was already started.

"Right across the road but they want to build it on the historical site. Part of me wish we had forced them back to the stone age. Let them beat each other to death with clubs and leave us alone" answered the man with a shake of his head before turning back to his own business as Acacia lowered her head and backed away from the man. Only to feel a hand on her shoulder, she turned to see Robert smiling down at her and her heart began to rise again.

"Don't worry about it." He said as he gave her a short kiss as they made their way toward the park.

 **Back in the Colonies Kara Thrace was in a horrible mood as she rode the bus back to her apartment complex, back on Delphi before the war she had a large vehicle which looked at home on the battlefield then on the street.** Now she had to take a bus because she couldn't afford a vehicle, like so many other members of the military most of all those who had lived on Caprica she had banked at Colonial Military Credit Bank. The bank was headquarters in Caprica City and that is where all their computers and records where located, when Caprica City was whipped off the map it took all the records of her and millions of others account. That had ruined her bank account and then her vehicle had been destroyed when the Tau'ri bombed the military base she had went to get into the fight. That had cost her bank account and her ride, then her landlord had raised his prices and she was discharged from the military due to budget cuts. So now she found herself on a dirty city bus heading into the bad part of town toward an apartment she shared with four other women.

"At least I have a fraken job." Stated Kara to herself as she looked out the window, Kythera was the largest city on Leonis and had a lot of factories. It had taken some fire from the Tau'ri but the Tau'ri had focused most of their firepower on Tauron, Caprica, Picon, Gemomon and Sagittarian. The rest had taken raiding attacks on their worlds but still damage was damage. The bus passed the burnt out remains of an anti-air missile defense station which still hadn't been cleaned up.

"You think with 20% unemployment they could get some people to clean this place up." Said one of her fellow coworkers who was also on the bus with her.

"Where are we going to get the money, all the money is being spent on Tauron, Caprica and Picon not here." stated Kara as she looked at the rundown buildings. It had been just over a year since the end of the war, but the economy of the Colonies had basically stopped because the government couldn't pay for the loans they had taken to buy war material. That had caused countless numbers of business both large and small to fail almost overnight. Cars and trucks where parked along the road, the same vehicles that had been there for weeks, fuel prices where over the top because the Tau'ri had destroyed the refineries during the war. They were coming back online but the prices where off the scale for people who didn't have jobs. The only places that had jobs was Aquaria and Libran because they were the Tau'ri favorites and had heavy investment from them, the other worlds which had jobs was Caprica, Picon and Tauron but those jobs where mostly clean up duty from the war and rebuilding the civilian space fleet.

When her stop came she got out and walked another block toward an apartment building, she used one of her keys to open the front door and started up the stairs toward the 5th floor where her apartment was located. As she headed up the stairs a boy came running down with of all things a toy Tau'ri Eagle fighter in hand. He held it in the air as if he was pretending her was the pilot.

"Fraken traitor." Said Kara as she fought the need to slap the toy out of the boy's hand as she moved up to her apartment and entered to find one of her roommates, a former marketing planner now turned worker at one of the Tau'ri fast food business.

"Hello Kara." said one of her roommates as Karl nodded her greeting before going into the apartment. It wasn't a horrible place, but not the place Karl wanted to be. She walked past another one of her room mates who was busy watching the TV, a woman who had once worked at an artillery shell factory before it was blown up and now worked nights cleaning bathrooms the same Viper factory Karl worked at. Her other roommate making the 4th woman sharing an apartment designed to hold only two, was currently unemployed but had an interview for one of the almost four thousand jobs which was coming soon in a still being built Tau'ri computer factory. Four thousand jobs with over 50 people trying out for each job making Tau'ri designed computers which wasn't even their best computers for a colonial market who were in a mad rush to buy anything Tau'ri. The Tau'ri may not have conquered them in the traditional sense but they had conquered the Colonies none the less.

"I hate my fraken life and the Fraken Tau'ri." said Kara as she went into her room and fell onto her bed, before feeling around the floor beside her bed with one hand until she found a bottle with some liquid in it among her collection of used liquor bottles.

 **Fleet Lord Straha was not in a good mood not by a long shot, his efforts to bring culture to the savages of Vantic 5 was running into more problems than he expected.** The populous was fighting back against the light of civilization more than he had ever believed possible and more than the experts and planners believed they would. The locals need to hang onto their hatchlings was confusing to every member of the race, who once their young came out of their eggs they would hand off to a male or female properly trained in raising them to do the job. The idea of motherhood and fatherhood as the Vantic called it was pointless and alien ideas to them, outside the line of the Emperor, none of the members of the Race knew who fathered them because when the mating season came it was a free for all in the rush to mate and a female could and would mate with dozens of males in the same season. Most didn't even know who their mother was but that at least was on public records but no one really bothered to look it up.

"How many of the crawlers have attempted to attack our schools?" inquired Straha

"There has been 17 major attacks across the planet and countless numbers of smaller more peaceful attacks." Stated his aid "With the worse being…"

"I know where it was." hissed Starha in a threatening tone which caused his aid to shut up at once. He even extended both hands showing his claws a clear sign among the race that he was ready and wanted a fight. "How did some backwater savages kill so many highly trained males and four helicopters in a couple of minutes and that is on top of the ones they murdered during the day and the trooper carriers they destroyed?"

"Sorry Exulted fleet lord, we aren't sure, we have isolated the woods and plans are being made to send in wood clearing crews to remove the hiding spots." said the aid as Straha put his claws away.

"No." hissed Straha "I want plans drawn to fire bomb the woods, let's see these wolves as they call themselves hide when everything is a smoking waste."

"Sir, I will order the planners to begin drafting the plans." said the aid as he rushed out of the room.

"Good." Said Straha as he moved toward the window and looked down at the ceremonial wall where the Race had inscribed the names of every male who gave their life to spread the Empire. Here the wall was already larger then another other conquest and now more names would be added. Looking at the wall his mind went to Atvar and the rest of the Conquest Fleet.

"He will have the easiest time of any conquer and get all the credit while I do all the real work." Complained Straha as he ran the dates in his mind, the fleet would have reached Tosev 3 by now or was at least in orbit. Once the males came out of cold sleep the entire conquest would take a few hours a day at the most. "Longer to get everyone out of cold sleep and ready then actual fighting. Damn his luckily scales for being there instead of here where males actually have to work."

 **Little did he know Fleet Lord Atvar was not in a good mood either, in fact he was wishing he was back on Vantic 5 instead of dealing with the situation in his claws.** His fleet was surrounded by the Tau'ri fleet and between them and Tosev 3 was not only a war fleet but multiple battle stations armed with weapons that could rip his ships apart. If that wasn't bad enough he had three fully populated worlds before him and all of them full of advanced Tosevites or Tau'ri as they called themselves. The meeting of all the ship lords would likely be recorded in the history of the race as being the longest in history.

"Exulted Fleet Lord, may I recommend that we end our discussion for today and return again tomorrow to take up this task a new." offered Fleet Lord Kirel, Atvar scanned the fleet lords assembled in the hall, they all looked tired and concern. He was about to give his consent with orders to have an early start to the next meeting tomorrow morning, when an alert appeared on his computer monitor.

"One moment." Said Atvar as he checked the notice coming in from the operational center of the ship. "Forgive me fellow males but we cannot call this meeting to a close just yet. We have new information coming in from interpreted Tosevite broadcasts and it sadly answers once and for all about their claim of faster than light travel."

With that Atvar pressed a button on his computer as the image in the larger display center changed to a mirror of the one on his own computer. It showed a real time broadcast of a Tau'ri news channel showing one of the Tosevites a female he guessed by the longer fur on the top of the head in red. They couldn't understand what the female was saying but the image changed to what was clearly an imagine of a Vantic being pushed around by a male with a rifle. More images of an educational center quickly followed, to the race the buildings didn't really cause any emotions the educational centers on Vantic where almost perfect copies of the educational centers on each of the races worlds and would have been built on Tosev 3 as well. The next images showed buildings not of the races design but clearly similar, the images where black and white and appeared to be taken from above. This caused only confusion for the Race, who didn't know they had just seen a photo from above of a Nazi death camp from WW2. They had no emotional pull from the images or the videos of males dragging young vantic away from their homes and parents. To them it showed the backwardness of the Vantic for focusing on blood ties outside of the line of the Emperor.

"What do you think Exulted Fleet Lord?" inquired Kirel

"I was going to ask you that." admitted Atvar

"Well if I were to assume this only helps us." explained Kirel "Surely as advanced as the Tosevites have become they do not hold tight to these notions of importance of who gave the DNA to an offspring. There is no logical reason why that is of any importance."

"Agreed, this does settle the debate the Tau'ri are capable of traveling faster than light." Said Atvar before turning to the other ship lords. "We will end this meeting for today and meet again in the morning. Dismissed."

 **The Condor landed without issue and came to a stop at the far end of the landing area for the Race's shuttle craft, using its powerful engines at the lowest setting the 60-meter-long space craft spun around as best it could on the runway.** It turned back the way it had come, the door opened and a ladder was lowered to the ground.

"Not the best design." stated the member of the race, the black color made no sense either because it would make it hard to see out in space. The idea that was so that the aircraft was harder to see by any enemy out in space, never crossed their minds.

"Well let's go prove this whole thing to be a falsehood." said the Protocol Master as they headed toward the strange aircraft. The rungs of the ladder was not designed for them, the spacing was too far apart and they had to stretch to reach each of the rungs. They entered the aircraft and found it full of seats, they picked out ones and waited. They watched as another Tosevite lifted the ladder up and resealed the aircraft. Then in a horrifying experience the Aircraft rushed forward at what had to be unsafe speeds and then up heading up into the sky, it wasn't smooth at all which was seen as a design problem with the aircraft by the Race and that meant it was there for primitive. In truth that was because of the shortness of the runway so the pilots had to gun the engines to get in the air before it ran out of runway.

"By the Emperor we are already in space." Said the reporter with them.

"That is impossible, we would be floating in space." countered a science advisor

"Gravity plating, allowing us to simulated gravity." Explained the Tau'ri guard by the cockpit as the attention of the Race went outside again as the wings folded back as the Condor prepared to enter hyperspace. With the edge of Home still visible the Condor opened hyperspace opened and with a rush of speed, the Race delegation was on its way to Earth.

The drone spotted the arrival of the guard of a leader of the Resistance while the local freedom fighters believed that they were still hidden by the cover of darkness. They approached the house in two pairs, one heading toward the front door while the other pair heading toward the back door. The pair heading toward the back door never saw the Owl sitting nearby with the rest of the Tau'ri team because it was under cloak. All four of them where armed with long slightly curved swords almost like Civil War sabers, they pulled them before entering the home.

"Janeia, why do you need us." said one of them in a series of clicks that would have been nothing but clicks a short while ago. While they had been waiting for the arrival the Tau'ri had used the time to get a basic knowledge of the tongue of the locals from their teachers, the computers made that easy all they had to do was say a word in both the language of the Race which the Tau'ri knew and then their own, it was far from perfect but it would work. "We have a lot of problems with the Race taking our children."

"And I hope to help solve your problem." stated Colonel Kumar as the two members of the freedom fighters turned with drawn sabers toward the source of the strange sounding voice. What they saw made them wonder if they could trust their own eyes. Standing in the corner was a figure about as tall as they were, but it walked on two legs without a tail stump. It was dressed in cloths like they were but clearly something far more advanced and it held in its hands a strange rifle pointed at the floor. Its face was hidden by a full helmet and it looked as if metal tubes ran down its arms and legs which appeared to be attached to a pack on its back.

"By the Ancestors what is that?" inquired one of the fighters.

"Colonel Kumar, Tau'ri Special Forces." Introduced Kumar as he lifted his hand and pressed a button on the side of his helmet turning on lights inside the helmet allowing the new comers to see his human face. "I understand you could use some help in freeing your world correct? If so please take me to your leaders."

 **Well I hope you enjoyed this chapter, now until next time please keep reading. Thanks Wilkins75.**


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter 13 The State of the Universe  
**

The Owl landed with a soft thud on the grassy area outside of a small city about a hundred miles from the farm house and with sight of the rising Race city formerly a Vantic/Opochti city which was now the capital of the Race's government here. The glowing electric lights of that city stood in stark contrast to the candles that burned in some windows of this village. The Owl had landed under cloak and so if anyone had been watching they would have seen two Opochti freedom fighters emerged from no were along with a strange figure they had never seen before.

"Where are we?" inquired Colonel Kumar knowing full well where he was on the map and that unknown to even his host that two additional owls had followed them in and were currently in the air above them.

"This is Likna." answered one of the freedom fighters as he pointed toward the gates of what kind of looked like a medieval European village. It had a stone wall, maybe 9-foot-tall running around the outside with buildings of the same design he had seen before inside. Then the guard pointed toward the distance Race city which looked something from the early 90s. "That is Nysha, I was once a high-ranking guard for the palace of the Prince and one day I will take back my home."

"I understand." said Colonel Kumar as he was lead into the darkened city, if anyone had looked out the windows of their home they would have noticed the three dark figures and knew from his profile alone that he didn't belong. Suddenly a creature which looked like a large armadillo only with turreted eyes and much different shaped face with a jaw of teeth clearly visible. It also lacked any visible fur and a short tail instead of a longer one. It made a sound like a dog toy and sniffed in Kumar's direction before moving off.

"A Beffel, the Race even brought their animals from their distance world. That is one of their pet animals." explained his guild with what he thought was distain at the animal. "They dropped them on us, and they have killed many of animals that used to be plentiful until none could be found."

"I see." said Kumar knowing that humans did the same thing, they had translated Earth animals to Valhalla and to Aquaria in the colonies. Both worlds lacked any large animal life, Valhalla because of a long ago mass extinction that the local animals where just being to fill the missing roles in which now was filled by Earth animals and Aquaria because the nuclear bomb and later terraforming meant the environment was open for those animals and the colonies had much bigger concerns. On some levels he should have felt guilty for that, but he didn't. Protocols had been put into place to make sure that any introduction of new animals from Earth or any other world to another world went a smoothly as possible and with as little damage to local animal and plant population.

His attention was turned away from animals to the building in front of him, it was nothing special. The same plaster and wood construction that every building in the area was made from. It was two levels with one part of the building much higher than the other making a L shape with a patio on the roof of the lower part. That designed seamed the most common in the city and after a series of quick knocks the door opened and a local opened the door.

"What are you two doing here? Aren't you in the south…." Started the local until he or was it a she noticed Kumar standing there in the dark with his rifle lowered but in a ready position to bring it up. He jumped back in surprise at the stranger who was clearly not a member of the Race.

"He is why we are here, he wants to see the Prince." said his guard "He claims to be something called a Tau'ri and his people want to help us."

"I see follow me." said the homeowner as they entered the room. With his life sign detector on heads up display mode Kumar was able to see that there was a total of 24 signatures in a nearby room. At first this surprised him then he remembered that his hosts had two hearts which meant it was only 12 locals in a nearby room. Their host closed the door and dropped a thick wooden bar across the frame. "What is he?"

"I am a Tau'ri Special Forces Solider." answered Kumar as he raised his hand and tapped the side of his helmet. This turned on the internal lights which while it illumined his face allowing them to see him it did mess with the heads up display a bit which was why they didn't like it. "I need to talk to your Prince or another leader."

"Very well, follow me." said the homeowner as they headed upstairs, the stairs while at a glance looked similar to human stairs, it was actually at a slightly higher angle then what was normal for a human and the steps where lower. They reached the second floor to find a large room with a slightly raised bed, at least he assumed it was a bed it looked like a large dog bed located in the center of the room. He cameras on his suit missed nothing as the computer scanned and documented everything, it measured the length of the bed and what appeared to be a dresser in the corner. A door opened out into a patio which contained a small garden but they turned instead toward the bathroom which was basically a long bench shooting straight out of the center of the wall with a hole in the floor against the back wall. The room smelled like some of the outhouses he had come across during his time on an SG team however his life sign detector showed that the large grouping was behind the wall. Kumar wasn't surprised when the home owner reached down into the hole and triggered a secret panel to open up. It must have gone into the next house as they entered a room like the bedroom only instead of the bed a large table filled the room. A couple of large maps covered the table held down with a mixture of knives, books and other heavy objects. Series of candles provided light for the room. In front of each of the warriors around the table where knives dug into the wood along with what appeared to be a small cloth armband sized flag each of which were different.

Instantly every one of the locals where on guard, all of them either drew swords or had handguns of some version. Mostly wheel lock versions but some automatics taken from the race, they all looked at him and he looked back.

"Prince Unia and other warriors, forgive me but I feel this is worth breaking protocol about interrupting a council of war meeting." said the home owner as he looked at Kumar who stood out in his power armor and helmet.

"What is that thing?" said a largest of the warriors as Kumar moved forward, his hand to his blackened K-bar combat knife which he had attached to his lower vest and with a quick movement he pulled the blade and spun it in his hand before stabbing it down into the table. All eyes were on him as he pulled off his Tau'ri flag patch from his outer uniform, it was velcro so it came off with some ease. He placed it down on the table in the same position that the others had their banner.

"I am Colonel Kumar, Tau'ri Special forces." introduced Kumar as he once again turned on his face lights. "I have been sent by leaders to offer you help with your struggle against the Race."

"What are you?" inquired the member of the resistance across from him, judging from the outfit and how everyone else looked at him, that had to be the Prince.

"I am a human or as the race would call me, a Tosevite." Explained Kumar "The Race attempted to launch a conquest of our world however they expected sword swinging primitives not the most powerful civilization in the Galaxy with technology far beyond them."

"I have heard of these Tosevites from the Race, they are less developed then we are, there is no way he can be a Tosevit." said one of the other Princes.

"Our people advance much faster than the Race or for a matter your civilization. In the time since the Race studied our world and marked it for conquest we have went from swords to energy based weapons and from sailing ships to ships capable of faster than light travel." explained Kumar "We have a fleet of warships surrounding the conquest fleet they sent and another fleet is currently over the Race's home world."

"I see." said this Prince Unia as he placed both his hands behind his back, it was hard to tell what he was thinking because he was an insect alien that Kumar had never seen before meaning he didn't know the mannerisms.

"Our President, our leader requests that one of your leaders come with me to Earth our home world to address our leaders." explained Kumar "With any luck at all, we will be able to provide you with all the help you will possibly need to retake your world."

"And what do you gain out of it?" inquired another one of the leaders around the table.

"I will not lie to you, you have a rare metal on your world. We want access to that." said Kumar as he followed his orders to be honest with the locals. "We however will not conquer your people, we will trade for it."

"I see." said Prince Unia as he looked toward one of the guards. "Bring Colonel Kumar some water and food we have much to discuss."

"Yes, my prince." said the guard as within minutes a metal plate with small pieces of what looked to be bread and a cup full of water arrived. With politeness Kumar reached for the water and instantly his heads-up display began to flash. His scanners where not powerful enough to know for sure but the plate seemed to be made out of Zephry. Before he could say any thing his radio came alive.

"Colonel Kumar we have a column of Race military vehicles heading into the city." reported one of the owls.

"Prince Unia, my people report that the Race has sent military vehicles into the city is that normal?" inquired Kumar

"No, it isn't." said Unia

"Sir, they are dropping off soldiers looks like a block and a half way from you." reported the pilot. "They are forming up, looks like you are going to have company. They are currently still all together but that will not last long."

"Looks like a raid is coming this way." Reported Kumar as a young child ran into the room.

"The Race is here, we need to get out." Said the child before noticing the Tau'ri in the room.

"Prince Unia with your permission, may we take care of this problem?" inquired Kumar

"Very well." Said Unia unsure in himself as Kumar touched the side of his helmet for the radio.

"Do you have a shoot on the Race convoy?" inquired Kumar "No civilian damage."

"Will do." said the Owl pilot

"Then take care of them." ordered Kumar as he moved toward the window, it was covered but he moved it slightly just enough for him to look outside. On the road was a group of maybe two dozen lizards in full combat gear stalking down the road. They were looking forward and not up, Kumar did and saw the darker outline of an Owl against the night sky as it decloaked.

"Are you mad!" yelled one of the freedom fighters at the same moment one of the Race soldiers pointed up at the window and Kumar's figure. It didn't matter the Owl was behind them and angled it's nose mounted chain gun down at the squad. With a roar like the end of the world the chain gun ripped into the squad. The freedom fighters who by now had arrived at the windows looked out in amazement as the Race whose solders had been dominating them for the longest time was turned within moments to pieces of dead meat. Down the road two more Owls where using their guns and small wing mounted missiles to destroy the vehicles and personal the Race had left behind. Within moments all the fire stopped and the Owls recloaked.

"There, now I believe it would be for the best if you relocated." said Kumar

"Agreed, you said your Prince needs our leader to speak before a council correct?" inquired Prince Unia "Because if you can do this to the Race, you can liberate us from them and get us back our families, our homes and our world."

"Yes, I will explain more on route by our President does request your leader to get more public support for actions." explained Kumar

"How long will it take?" inquired Prince Unia

"A couple of days at the most, longer for you to deal with the leaders then it will be to actually get to Earth." explained Kumar

"Then I will go, I will go get help for my people." said Prince Unia as Kumar eyed the roof top garden patio, an owl should be able to position itself to take on passengers there with no real issue.

 **Unaware of what was happening on a world she never heard of, Acacia was having the best vacation she had ever head, it was magical in almost every way.** The theming of the park was amazing with each of the five different areas or lands as she was informed they were called based around something different. In the center glittering in the sun was a perfect representation of Elsa's ice castle from the movie frozen.

"Think this is only day one." said her best friend, basically a sister Medea as she and most of the Lefeld family took a little break sitting out front of a tea shop near the hub of the park. The Jade Dragon was its name and it provided tea from all over Tau'ri space and they even had colonial brands. She had gotten a Tau'ri brand and with some convincing got Robert to get a colonial one. He had passed the tea around his family allowing them to try it.

"Robert dear, will you go get me some more of that…what do you call it again?" inquired Grandma Lefeld.

"Sagittarian Red Tea." offered Acacia "It's my personal favorite, but they put too much sugar in it. I could see that when they made it."

"Thank you can you please ask them for another." asked Grandma Lefeld

"Sure, thing Grandma." Said Robert as he stood up to get in line. Always the ball of energy Elizabeth dragged her father into a line to meet Elsa for the second time in the span of a few hours, her mother Stacy stayed behind with her baby brother. Robert was still in line when his father and grandfather who had been sharing multiple stories headed off to get a pretzel from a nearby food cart. So in one quick movement all the men were gone, minus the two year old boy.

Acacia felt as if her heart was racing as she noticed how Robert's grandmother was looking at her. Stacy's warning about how the matriarch of the Lefeld family would be pushing for her only grandson to get married. She took a deep breath and took one last drink of her own tea, now wishing she had something much stronger, maybe something from that Bavarian beerhouse a couple buildings away. Finally, she readied herself, if she didn't do this now it would hang over the vacation like a storm cloud.

"You want to ask me something don't you Mrs. Lefeld?" said Acacia as the conversation between mother and daughters stopped and all eyes turned to Acacia and the Senior woman at the table.

"Yes, I do." said Grandma Lefeld. "I have seen how my grandson looks at you and even in this short amount of time I have seen how the two of you act around each other. It is clear to me that you two are in love. Is this not so?"

"It is." confirmed Acacia with a smile as she looked to where Robert was still waiting in the long lines, if this place had any problems it was the lines.

"So, when will you get married?" inquired Grandma Lefeld.

"Grandma, you are…" started Stacy only to see Acacia wave off the comment.

"That's the thing, I told him not to ask me." said Acacia as the entire table even her best friend looked at her. "I noticed how he was asking me about Colonial marriage traditions and I told him not to ask me to marry him."

"What, you never told me that." Said Medea offended that her childhood friend and basically a sister would hide it from her.

"I don't tell you everything Medea." Said Acacia

"But why?" inquired Robert's mother confused.

"It isn't that I would say no, Gods no I would say yes in a heartbeat it is just there are some issues in the way." Explained Acacia as she let out a sigh. "You all don't know how colonial college scholarships work. It is handed out by worlds, so many scholarships go to each world and if a person marries a person from another world their citizenship is transferred to that world and so does their scholarship."

"We had something like that, if you marry an American so become an American by marriage." said Stacy "Sure there are other steps but generally that is it, so what is the problem?"

"That if I married Robert before I finished school, I would no longer be considered Libran but Tau'ri and there is no scholarships for Tau'ri in the Colonial Educational system." Explained Acacia with pain in her face.

"They would kick you off scholarship for that?" inquired Stacy, she worked in administrator for Daniel Jackson University on Earth so this hit her hard.

"If Robert was Tauron, Caprican or any other world in the colonies no issue." explained Acacia "All I would have to do is fill out some paperwork nothing more. I am luckily I have a job that pays ok but there is no way I could afford my schooling without the military scholarships I have. Frak I am luckly that the government is honoring the military scholarship program, the government doesn't have a lot of money to throw around."

"I see, so the choice is finishing your education and the man you love." Said Mrs. Lefeld, Robert's mother. "I can understand that for sure but engagement could happen?"

"Not really, Colonial tradition boarding on a law actually, it is considered very bad luck for an engagement to last longer than a year, sign of a doomed marriage in the future." explained Medea for her best friend. "And you have 2 and half years yet of schooling."

"Ah…" said Robert's youngest sister, Lisa.

"Tradition is important for sure and Robert knows this?" inquired Grandma Lefeld

"Yes, he also knows that tradition on Libran is to ask the mother permission to marry her daughter, I understand it is different in some Tau'ri cultures." Explained Acacia as she noticed Robert was near the front of the line now, she wanted to wrap this up before he came back. "But that isn't the only issue, see I am not sure if my degree will transfer to getting a job in the Tau'ri space. Will a Tau'ri employer accept a degree from one of the best schools on Libra? I don't know and I will not be a burden on Robert."

To Acacia slight joy, the senior Lefeld was nodding her head in understanding and dare she think respect.

"I respect you more for that, a marriage is teamwork I helped my husband managing appointments and supplies when he first started his veterinary clinic in our hometown in the late 60s." She added as she turned to her eldest granddaughter. "Stacy, you work at Daniel Jackson University, could you do something about that?"

"Getting her university accredited by the Tau'ri University system?" asked Stacy as her grandma nodded. "Not totally sure, not my department but my friend Linda is in that field working on accrediting university and making sure a high standard is kept, I could give her a call see if they have even considered doing that yet?"

Acacia's eyes widened as she looked at the older woman who was already reaching for her phone. She had forgotten that she worked at this Daniel Jackson university on Earth.

"I'll make the call now, screw the price of an interplanetary call." said Stacy with a smile as she began to dial her phone. Her call was picked up and then bounced off a series of multiple satellites that spread the distance between Valhalla and Earth. "Maybe I can see if they can arrange a scholarship program while they are at it, kind of unfair to for you or anyone else to lose scholarship because of being Tau'ri. Might as well try to kill two birds with one stone."

"Thanks." Said Acacia whipping away some tears from her eyes.

"No problem, for a future sister-in-law." said Stacy "Just don't tell Robert, he will want to pay me back for the price of the call. He is like that."

Before Acacia could respond Stacy spoke into her phone.

"Linda, this is Stacy how are you doing?" inquired Stacy as she made a few small talk before explaining the situation to her friend, all the way back on Earth. "Really?...well what about the scholarship thing, oh thank you so much. Yes, I'll get you that souvenir you asked for, my treat just bring this up at the next staff meeting. Thanks."

"Well?" inquired Grandma Lefeld as Stacy closed her phone.

"Turns out they were already working on a program, going to bring it to the President of the Colonies in a few days in fact to get it started." explained Stacy as Acacia's eyes widened a bit "Your school was already in line for possible accreditation and I told her about the scholarship thing as well. They had no idea about that and she will look into that. I had to promise her a sovereign, some castle figurine but that is easy."

"Thank you." said Acacia on the verge of tears as Robert returned with a cup of tea in his hand.

"Acacia is something?" inquired Robert with concern that something had happened, as Acacia and all the women smiled a knowing smile.

"No, not at all. Not anymore." said Acacia.

"Alright what story did they tell you?" said Robert as he looked accusing at his little sister, who was smiling a knowing smile.

 **Admiral Hackett got out what passed for a luxury vehicle for the Race and instantly wished he was 20 years younger because of the pain in his lower back from the car designed for creatures about three quarters his size.** He scanned the area in front of him, it looked like a long footpath with views of a building in the distance. It looked strongly roman in nature with a dome ceiling and what appeared to be a colonnade in front compared to the mixture of Japanese's and Russian orthodox designs he had been seeing from the buildings of the Race's capital of Preffilo.

"Welcome to the Shrine of Spirits of Emperors past." Said a lizard which came about to Hackett's chest. "I am honored to be the tour guild to our first Tosevite worshipers."

"My God." said Hackett with a sigh as he looked at this lizard, he knew he was going to get to play tourists but to have the Race send him first to a temple to their gods was not what he wanted or expected. He wanted to be meeting with the Emperor to discuss the situation to avoid a war that would turn this city into a waste land but instead of sending him to meet anyone important they sent him here.

"What did he say?" inquired the guild looking at another member of the Race, who shrugged his shoulders, in a strangely human way.

"We are not worshipers of spirits of Emperor's past." Stated Hackett through his aid who was serving as an interrupter. That caused both lizards and the growing crowed to look at him, both of them standing very still unnaturally still.

"Ah…I see." Said one of them as he started moving. "Forgive us, we didn't think this through as carefully as we should have."

Then he turned to the guild and went on.

"These Tosevites are ruled by a different Emperor, they worship the spirits of their Emperor's past not our own." stated the second lizard as the first lizard looked at him but remained still as if the idea of worshiping another group of spirits of empiror's past was still beyond his understanding.

"But how can that be, they are really ignorant of the Emperors? How can their spirits rejoice in the next world if they do not know the Emperor's names?" inquired the tour guild in amazement. "They worship their own Emperors? Really?"

"No we don't." answered Hackett "We have freedom of religion, we choice or religion we want to follow just like we choice our leader, our President. Now forgive me but I need to speak to your Emperor and other high officials in order to solve the issues facing us."

The two members of the Race unable to understand the idea of freedom of Religion or choosing their own leaders answered the question they could.

"Well to see the Emperor all you have to do is fill out a petition and have it selected and approved for an audience." Explained the 2nd lizard

"And who do I have to see about filing a petition?" inquired Hackett

"All young at school learn how do that? How is that you do not know?" inquired the Tour guild "ah forgive me, I keep forgetting you are not members of the Empire yet. Yes, you must submit the request in writing, including the formal intro and outer paragraphs and the five-page reason why you wish to interrupt the Emperor's day with your audience."

"They want you to type a report?" inquired his aid somewhat amazed at the idea. "A God damn report?"

"So I have to type out this request?" stated Hackett "Can I get a copy of the intro and outer paragraphs?"

"Type? No this has to be done by claw with a special pen." said the member of the race as he moved to a nearby computer terminal in what looked to be a sort of ticket hub and pulled up the image of what looked to be a fountain pen. "And it has to be in your own claw writing and with no errors of any kind either in form or spelling."

"I see." said Hackett knowing this was just made a lot harder. The Race didn't seem to notice the worry and concern in his voice. "Take me back to the space port, I will return to my ship and inform my leaders of this development and see what course they want to follow."

"It shall be done." said the lizard as Hackett turned and with effort got back into the too tiny car and headed back to the waiting Owl transport. "I'll call ahead and get someone to meet you with instructions to make a request to meet the Emperor and one of the special pens."

 **President Carter sat behind her desk weighing her options, the Tau'ri government was in its early stages with so many issues yet to be agreed upon.** She knew that every move she made would set an example for the Presidents who would follow her into this office, like George Washington the 1st President of her home nation, she would be setting precedent that would shape what following leaders did. As much as she wanted to focus solely on the issues with the Race and getting the material needed to make ZPMs she had other areas to worry about ranging. One of which was much higher level of concern than any other, that was the area of space within 30 minutes flight time of Lanagara, the second most populated world in the Tau'ri with only Earth in front of it.

She turned her attention back to the map of the Milky Way galaxy which hovered in space above the work table in her private office. She studied the map with care, at the treaty of Gaia signed only a few years ago, a large part of the galaxy 18% belonged to the Tau'ri with an additional 2% which consisted of the Asgard protected worlds now where under their control. The rest of the galaxy was split among the other major powers mostly the different Lucian alliance and Free Jaffa nations. Currently 5 of those other powers filled her mind.

It was five of them which currently put the most pressure on her mind, in one part of space near to Lanagara. It was here that six different powers meet and four of them where threatening to go to war against each other that would drag in the 5th and could drag in the Tau'ri as well. The powers where three different Lucian alliance factions and two free Jaffa nations all in this one area of space. Each side had a lot of hate toward the other powers, one of the free Jaffa nations had been formed with Jaffa who had once all served the same Goa'uld System Lord while the other was formed by another group of Jaffa who followed a different system lord. They had fought side by side against their enslaves and then the ORI but now the thousands of years that the two Jaffa factions had fought each other was threatening to start again. In the middle was the three Lucian Alliance factions made out of human slaves from the same system lords that the Jaffa had once served only they hated the Jaffa just as much as the Goa'uld because they had been their enforcers. A four way war between the two Jaffa and two Lucian alliance factions was likely in the near future. It was the smallest power and the 3rd Lucian Alliance faction located in the middle of it all which was causing the most problems.

It was made out of group of humans which hadn't belonged to any of the other Goa'uld System Lord empires but to a smaller weaker Goa'uld which had played both System Lords against each other to stay alive. They where in a horrible position with massive fleets on either side of it and four different powers asking or rather demanding that they side with them or die. That is why they had requested an audience with her and the Tau'ri government.

Officially it was to make a request for the Tau'ri to hold a peace conference, unofficially it was something far more interesting and dangerous. If Tau'ri intelligence was to be believed, the Lucian Alliance family which ran this small power in the middle of much larger powers would be making a request, but not for the Tau'ri to hold a peace conference but a request to join the Tau'ri alliance itself.

Carter had almost dropped her drink when she read that, on the surface it was a good move for them. The Lucian alliance group in question had helped a lot in the Colonial War making Tau'ri designed cargo transports at their own shipyards and in return along with money the Tau'ri had sent teachers, engineers and doctors to help raise their people to a better standard of living.

That was the thing across the Galaxy, the Goa'uld never wanted their slaves and warriors to advance so they kept them in the dark. Most adults hardly knew how to write their own name and do anything but the most basic math and the Jaffa where not much better. There were a handful of exceptions but those where rare and the people and Jaffa in question where the most loyal to their god and died with them in the rebellions. They had built starships and energy weapons but that was because they were building copies of designs long ago made with little or no change.

Carter took a breath as she looked at the map again, their area of space was directly in the middle between the other powers. If they did ask to join and was accepted the Tau'ri would find themselves smack in the middle of a possible four-way war, with a small corridor of space linking Lanagara to this new Tau'ri planets located in the middle of a war zone. That would make a war very painful to carry out with the number of ships they currently had, however the different factions knew that one Tau'ri battleship was capable of taking down whole fleets of Ha'tak class warships on its own. While they would have the numbers would it be too much of a risk with so many other powers waiting to jump them if they weakened themselves against the Tau'ri fleet. That was a strong possibly that they would be too worried about another power attacking them that they wouldn't attack the Tau'ri.

The Tau'ri would be gaining almost two dozen populated worlds with over a hundred un-populated or lightly populated worlds. With a combined population of over four and a half billion people that would give them another great population boost on top of the baby boom already going on that was projected to increase the Tau'ri population by five fold within fifty years. Some of the worlds were rich in minerals and other resources and five of them, the ones with the largest populations had shipyards that could be turned to making smaller Tau'ri warships and civilian ships with ease. Raising the population to a standard of living and educational level shared by the rest of the Tau'ri would take time but it was something they were good at now. Integrating them would also be a problem but one they knew how to solve but they hadn't done it on such a scale before.

She studied the map one last time before zooming out. She would make her decision soon but not now, the meeting with the Lucian Alliance nation was still two weeks off and with luck by then they would on their way to making ZPMs and that would tip the balance solo in the Tau'ri favor.

All the long-term planners and experts predicted that like Lanagara human worlds would ask to join the Tau'ri alliance. What the planners hadn't expected was a group this large would request permission to join so soon but the group was surrounded by other powers looking to destroy them. The planners expected some of the smaller one world powers within the Tau'ri borders to request first, worlds like Pangar, Galar and other smaller powers limited to a single world. Even powers spread out over more worlds like the Colonials and the Tollans where expected by most to join the Tau'ri before a group of this size and power. Just showed how the experts could be wrong.

Carter took a breath as she tried not to remember what happened to the Tollan people, they had once been one of the most advanced human civilization in the galaxy when the Tau'ri started exploring the galaxy. Now thanks to wars with the Gau'old and then the Ori, their worlds had been ravaged and their population was down to only a few hundred thousand people.

A beep on her computer told her that a message had come in. She scanned the message and nodded her head. The team had contacted the local freedom fighters against the Race and one of their leaders was already on the way here. Judging from the reaction of the public to the videos coming out of the Race occupied Ovea, Carter could give them any weapon short of a WMD and have the public behind her. This meant she could unload some of the old weapons of war from Earth, they still had whole warehouses full of Cold War Era weapons, mostly Soviet in nature which hadn't been destroyed. The image of the insect Opochti running around with AK-47 style assault rifles appeared in her mind. She could also give them Colonial Weapons taken after the war or even some more modern weapons. That was one option before her with that problem, another option a full-bore military assault was still being planned out for her consideration.

She checked the time that the Resistance leader would arrive and the time that the delegation from the Race would arrive. The Race would arrive first but not by long, her political advisors advisories her to meet with the Resistance leader first and she would. The Race would meet with their own forces first in the Conquest fleet giving time for the Resistance leader to meet with Carter first. She closed her computer and headed out her office door passing members of the protective detail dressed in black suits with weapons hidden inside their jackets. She moved down the hall and up into the Presidential bedroom and after a quick shower, she got into bed and went to sleep knowing she would have an early and busy filled day ahead of her.

 **Unknown to Carter, Fleet Lord Atvar was already asleep inside his rest chamber, the chamber was larger than any other sleeping chamber but it had only a few personal items.** A large mirror was on one wall with a table covered with all the different types of body paints that he used to apply his rank pattern every couple of days. A private wash camber where he could clean his scales and make waste sat between his rest chamber and his personal office. A sitting chair with a reading light sat in one corner along with a handful of personally books. He had a few photos of his friends back on Home and one of him with the Emperor when he was declared Fleet Lord to conquer Vantic 5 and Tosev 3. He had conquered Vantic 5 but it looked like he would never add a fifth world into the Empire.

The sound of a computer hissing for attention filled his dreams as he struggled to remain asleep. Finally, he knew that the fight was lost and he opened one of his eyes to see an aid looking out of him from the computer terminal sitting beside his bed. Slowly he sat up and turned his attention to the screen, he knew it was bad news. You don't wake the fleet lord to report good news.

"Activate two-way voice." said Atvar as the computer turned on the two-way communication channel. "This is Atvar speak."

"Forgive me exulted Fleet Lord but two large Tau'ri vessels have just appeared out of a vortex of energy." Said the aid who was on the bridge as the image of two large ships appeared on his screen. They were coming out of strange vortex of energy the likes of which Atvar had never seen before.

"So that is how they are able to travel faster than light." said Atvar with some mild anger at the aid who had woken him. It was important for sure but not something they already didn't know, he could have slept and gotten to it first thing in the morning.

"And Fleet Lord we have gotten a radio broadcast from the Tau'ri that a ship carrying some high ranking members of the Imperial palace will be arriving within the hour from Home." Said the aid as Atvar turned both eye turrets to look at him on the screen.

"They have already found Home?" inquired Atvar he had hoped it would have taken the Tau'ri some time to locate the heart of the Empire.

"Yes, sir and…." He paused as if he didn't want to go on. "Forgive me exulted Fleet Lord but the Tau'ri have reported to us that they have a war fleet over Home and they have placed it under blockade."

"That is an act of war." Said Atvar totally missing the fact that the Race had launched an invasion fleet against the Tau'ri. Then a horrible idea filled his mind, what if the Tosevites decided to add the Empire into their Empire. "How big where those transports? How many fighting units could fit in it?"

"We are still working out their cargo capacity, but between the two of them an armored brigade at least." stated the aid as Atvar lowered his head.

"By the Emperor, they are preparing to carry out an armored invasion of Home?" stated Atvar with fear of what an armored brigade could do to Home. Aside when the Empire went conquering the Race had no soldiers only police and outside of the Imperial royal guard the worse they were trained for was a hostage situation with a knife maybe even gun wielding member of the Race not armed combat against an organized force. With nothing to stop the Tosevites an armored brigade could cause major damage maybe even take the capital and the Emperor. "Monitor those ships and any ships leaving the system, we cannot allow ships capable of carry soldiers to Home out of the system."

"It shall be done." Said the aid as the line went dead and Atvar was left alone with his thoughts, the image of the Tosevites infantry males invading the Empire and attack home was foremost in his mind. He knew deep down within him that he would throw his own life aside in order to protect home and his Emperor, he would ram the ship into the enemy if he had too. Luckily, he would see any ships leaving the system and would be able to take actions to stop them.

 **On the world known to the Race as Tosev 4 or better known as Mars a phone began to ring beside a bed.** An arm stretched out from under the covers and picked up the cell phone and swiped a finger across the screen. The screen read his finger print and his DNA using all the technology in the screen before promoting him to put in an access code. He did this all on autopilot as he sat up in bed and waited for the connection.

"General Jager." Said former Colonel Jager, a veteran of the German military now fully integrated into the Tau'ri military he wore the stars of a Brigadier General. He was still only half asleep when his eyes widened as the image of a woman in a higher-ranking uniform appeared on the video screen.

"General Leong." said Jager as he used one of his hands to salute while thanking God he had had put a shirt back on. Being shirtless in front of the highest ranking military officer in the Tau'ri military was not a good thing, even if she was calling at 4 am local time.

"General, sorry for waking you but you are to report for a meeting onboard the Yamato in three hours." said General Leong as Jager ran the numbers, it was do able but he would have to hurry to get everything ready. "While you attend the meeting put your command in a ready position to move out to possible combat operations."

"Ma'am is this have to do with that news out of Vantic 5?" inquired Jager

"It does indeed, we have a local name for it now but I will fill you in on that when you arrive." stated the Tigress.

"I understand, may I request that any combat data on the enemy armored and vehicles be sent to us, so my troops can prepare some in the simulators?" inquired Jager as the Tigress gave what was for her an approving smile.

"Already sent General prepare you command for moving out and I will see you when you arrive." ordered General Leong as the line went dead.

"Sounds like you have to go." Said the woman's voice beside him as he turned to see Colonel Ludmila Gorbunova lying there in a state of semi-undress. The two of them had meet just before the invasion of the Colonies and had hit it off to such a point that Ludmila now lived with him in his general's quarters. Since Ludmila was Air Force and he army he didn't have any direct control over her on the field and her command of a regiment of Adder attack helicopters was independent of his own brigade of Tanks and armor he commanded. Even so both knew they were skating the line and it was only a matter of time until something had to happen.

"Dah." Said the German Jager in Ludmila's native Russian as he kissed her before getting out of bed and starting to get ready. As he fastened the black color patches of an armored warrior and put on his combat markers which showed he was a veteran of not only the Tauron invasion but the nuclear strike on Valhalla he couldn't help but think if another combat ribbon would soon join the two he currently wore.

 **Far away from Mars and far away from the events going on between the rest of the Tau'ri, General John Shepard walked onto the bridge of the flagship of the 8** **th** **fleet the TAV Prince of Wales.**

"General, everything is going according to plan we should be ready for our first powering up test within 12 hours." Said the Captain in command of the Night crew.

"Good, once we conduct the test I will be out of your hair as quickly as possible." Said Shepard, as Commander Pegasus he was the second highest ranking military officer in the Tau'ri. With only General Loeng, as Commander Milky Way being higher than he was in the military command structure. In truth, he would have been over her but he liked being commander Pegasus and it allowed him to be close to his wife's Teyla people. The great distance from Earth allowed him more freedom then he would have had if he was stationed closer to Earth.

"Sir, you are not a problem at all." said the Captain before giving a grin. "Well Dr. McKay is a little."

"Not wrong there, Frank." said Shepard with a laugh before looking out the main bridge display which showed before them a massive Ring floating in space. With an entire Tau'ri fleet, multiple defense stations and construction teams filling the system and in the distance, was a black hole. A super gate, the 1st designed and built by the Tau'ri was only hours away from its first test. "Earth is going to get a whole lot closer."

"That it is sir, speaking of Earth we did get a request on a time table for the Ragnarok." said the Captain.

"How long until the Ragnarok test is done?" inquired Shepard

"Depending on if everything goes good today, 20 days at the earliest." Said the Captain as Shepard let out a sigh.

"Well they will just have to deal with it, we only have one Ragnarok ship and we need it here." Said Shepard as he went back to monitoring the construction of the Pegasus Supergate. According to research found both in the Ancient database and in captured ORI computers a galaxy could only have a single Supergate in them. This was backed up by the Tau'ri's own research and it appeared that the Ancients had considered building a network of Supergates to link galaxies like they did with the Stargate networks but they never got around to it before the Wraith forced them to retreat to Earth and then to focus on accession. So far only three Supergates where know to be built, one in the ORI galaxy, one built by the ORI in the Milky Way galaxy both of which were now under Tau'ri full or semi-control.

The last one was in a distant galaxy so far away that it was impossible to send ships larger than a puddle jumper through. It was there that the disabled Ancient Destiny sat dead in space aside from a caretaker and research Tau'ri team. The plan was to send the Deep Space Recon Ship Prometheus to another galaxy and from their build a Supergate that would allow larger ships to travel to the Destiny's location. From there they would send premade parts to assemble a new Deep Space Recon Ship named Destiny II through the Supergate to launch from the location of the Ancient's Destiny to finish its mission.

 **The Condor came out of hyperspace on the far side of the system away from the bulk of the 1st fleet. This route actually made the trip longer from Home but the Tau'ri wanted to put on a show and a show they did put on.** The delegation from the Imperial Palace looked out the windows in amazement as they saw the Tosev system, the condor flew past Venus or Tosev 2 according to the Race and saw that it had been totally changed. Venus had more of its surface covered with oceans then Earth did with almost 80% of it covered with water with multiple Australian sized island continents and countless smaller islands on the surface.

"By the Emperor." Said the science advisor as he looked out the window at the terraformed planet, that type of technology was believed millions of years in the future. The amazement only grew as they passed by Earth, passing in the dark side of the planet to show the glow of all the city lights coming from the surface. Mars was next and like Venus it was terraformed only it had a smaller percentage of oceans and with most of ocean water in a single massive ocean that took up the top 3rd of the planet including the Northern Pole.

"Three worlds, three populated and habitual worlds in a single system." said Imperial Guard officer who had come alone. "How many Tosevites are in this Empire?"

Then the Condor powered past the asteroid belt and the defense stations before some of the larger ships of the 1st fleet came into view. Then in the middle of it was the Conquest fleet of the Race, their fleet was surrounded by the Tau'ri fleet like a flock of sheep with wolves all around them.

"They told the truth." said the Protocol Master as his universe, the universe that every member of the Race knew was true for thousands of years had been shoved on their tail stump. A horrifying idea entered his head, yesterday the Race and the Empire was the most advanced culture and the height of civilization and now the sword swinging savages where beyond them.

 **Well I hope you liked this chapter, until next time please keep reading. Thanks Wilkins75.**


	14. Chapter 14

**IMPORTANT NOTE: Just to let you know my laptop of over 5 years is going bad, I have already ordered a new one and it is on its way. It will take between 10 days and two weeks until it arrives and it will take time to transfer everything and get used to everything. So as much as I hate this, the next chapter will likely not come out until sometime around the 10** **th** **of November. Sorry but it was time for an upgrade anyhow, so until then please keep reading.**

 **Thanks Wilkins75.**

 **Chapter 14 Time Frame**

The condor pilot had a slight issue when it came to dock with the Race starship the 127th Emperor Hetto but like the 1st condor it extended its universal docking attachment and docked with the Banner Ship of the Conquest fleet. The pilot turned off the gravity allowing the delegation of the Race to float out the door and into their own ship. Once the airlock was sealed the condor pulled away from the banner ship and powered away from the fleet heading toward the battleship Yamato where it would refuel and await orders to bring the Race delegation back to Home.

"We are really on our banner ship." Said the Palace guard as he looked at the low and middle ranking officers who were there to meet the delegation.

"Yes, superior sir." Said one of the officers

"And where is the Fleet Lord Atvar?" inquired the Protocol master

"Right here, sir." said Atvar as he floated up to the delegation and got into the position of respect as best as he could in zero gravity. "Forgive me for my lateness, the Tau'ri only told us a short time ago of your arrival and never gave us precise moment."

"That still doesn't explain why you were not down here to welcome us." said the Protocol master, he as a member of the Imperial Palace was a higher rank then the Fleet Lord, the Palace guard was also higher then Atvar but he was lower than the Protocol Master.

"If I may superior sir." said the Palace Guard. "If you notice the lighting, it means the ship is in its night cycle I assume you were sleeping Fleet Lord Atvar."

"Yes." admitted Atvar "We have been in meetings all day discussing what to do with the Tau'ri."

"Do you have more ships then they do here?" inquired the Protocol master

"We do." said Atvar

"Then maybe…you should push on to their three habitual worlds if we have them under threat of explosive metal bombs we can force them to back off from Home and accept the Emperor." Stated the Protocol Master.

"It wouldn't be that easy." Said the Palace Guard before Atvar could answer "It is said that in order to take an enemy in a prepared position you need 3 times as many as the attacking defending."

"That is true, superior sir." Said Atvar "For the most part, that is based on stone wall defenses and if both sides are armed generally equally we are not in either of those cases."

"You both have explosive metal bombs and missiles, we could strike first and…." started the Protocol Master before Atvar raised his clawed hand in protest.

"Forgive me sir, but the Tosevites have energy based weapons." explained Atvar "They fired an energy beam weapon from one of those stations, all our researchers agree it could cut straight through our ships destroying them."

The newly arrived members of the Race looked at him.

"Energy based weapons, that is impossible." stated the Palace Guard

"We have the video and limited research to show that is far from the case." stated Atvar "We do not know how long it would take to recharge the weapon, but it is clear we wouldn't be able to reach Tosev 4 yet alone Tosev 3. Our ships would be cut down from the sky like crops at harvest time. May the spirits of Emperors past forgive me but I cannot complete the task given to me by the Emperor himself, I cannot conquer Tosev 3."

"I see." said the Protocol Master with disappointment in his voice. "At least you were able to conquer Vantic 5 and this issue was totally unexpected and unplanned. I am sure the spirits of Emperors past will overlook this failure."

"Thank you protocol master however we may have another issue." stated Atvar "We spotted two transport ships heading into the heart of the Tau'ri system, we are concerned that they may try to carry out an attack on Home."

"We are the Race, surely they couldn't be as foolish to challenge us." Said the researcher and expert on the Race and other cultures as the three-main people turned one eye turret each toward him. "Forgive me superior sirs, but is it not a truth that they would be foolish to challenge us."

"No, it is not." said the Palace guard with pain in his voice. "The Emperor has already ordered the preparations for an emergency soldiers time to defend home to begin in secret."

That caused Atvar to look at him, aside from whenever the Race went conquering they had no soldiers only police. They had written records and time frames for training, building and arming soldiers but that would take time. Outside of Palace guards, Police Special Response teams and the rare hunter guns on Home where rare. Most police didn't even carry a firearm, whole police forces in small towns may have only two or three police trained in how to use a firearm and the firearms would be locked away at the station.

"We plan to have the first factory retooled to start producing guns in the next half of a cycle and males and females in the educational testing department are running old tests through the computers adding soldiers to the carrier options for the old carrier tests for males." said the Palace Guard

Atvar's thoughts turned within for a moment, he had taken the test and the scores showed that he was well suited to be a solider and a field in architecture. Sometimes he wondered if he would have had a happier life, building buildings back on Home. He had thought he would be building buildings here on Tosev 3 building a culture only to find that culture a strange culture had already found a home here and had grown to threaten his own.

"That fast, half a year to start production of small arms, that is a rapid change a sure sign of how desperate the time is." said Atvar "However Superior Sir, we may need to change our plans even more."

Change of plans was a dirty saying among the Race, changing plans wasn't supposed to happen. Once you formed a plan you were supposed to follow it to the dot. Nothing was to be changed and therefor nothing could go wrong because everything had been planned of time.

"The Tosevites, they have female soldiers." stated Atvar which caused all the newcomers from home to look at him, females had never been soldiers on Home. "These means they can draw upon their full population when raising an army to fight us."

"I see." said the Palace Guard "any idea how they handle the mating season with females in their armed forces?"

Atvar gave an eye movement which showed he had no idea, among the Race and every race they knew about sexuality only happened during a mating season. When the season came females released a pheromone to tell males it was time and the pheromones the drive need to mate in males. Without the Pheromones, the sexual desire was dormant nothing more than a half thought of idea of passing on DNA to the next generation nothing more. That was why conquests fleets was made totally of males.

"Maybe their females can control when they release their pheromones or those who take up the soldier's path have their pheromone glans removed." offered the science researcher.

"That is a possibility we hadn't considered but that is the most likely answer." admitted Atvar "Either way we need to add females to the consideration for soldiers, the Tau'ri can pull on their entire population when they are building an army, we must do the same."

"Could they already have an army?" inquired Palace Guard

"That would be a huge waste of resources, they keep the ships because they are in space and space has vast room to store ships but to keep actual soldiers outside of a handful on their ships is a huge waste of resources." said the historian "You can't keep large amounts of land cruisers and other weapons of war on the surface of a planet without taking away so much land that could be used to much better uses. Only a truly made species would do that."

"Truth." Said every member of the Race.

"So we have time." Said the historian

 **On board the Battleship Missouri over Home Admiral Hackett was looking down at the computer display which showed a map of Home as he stood on the bridge of the warship.** Around him stood a handful of other officers, this was a semi-formal meeting to bring the Admiral who had been on the surface up to speed.

"Sir, we can land armor in these five points and be in the Capital within two hours, other areas nearby are too built up to land enough armor fast enough to take the capital before any organized resistance could happen." said the army colonel assigned to be Hackett's advisor to the army. A lifelong navy man before going among the stars Hackett knew some about the Marines but when it came to the big heavy tools that the boys in green as he still thought about them had he knew little. "We have other land zones picked out if we want to land near other major cities."

"Thanks Colonel, but truth be told I don't expect any major ground action here on Home." admitted Hackett "If it is going to happen anywhere it is going to happen on Vantic 5 or Opochti as it is known by the locals, here outside of a possible Marine landing to take the Capital and the Imperial palace this is just a thought excises. General Leong want every option we can give her before she presents her plans to the President."

"I understand sir." said the colonel, he was young and still had slight trouble with English. It was clear he wanted to go back to Japanese's but Hackett only knew English with a little Italian he picked up to talk to the Italian ladies when he was in his 20s and stationed in Italy. In the future everyone was going to speak multiple language and some even hinted that in time they would merge into a single new language.

"What is this large area to the North West of the Capital?" inquired Hackett as he zoomed in on the location on the map, it was a wide open plain with no towns, villages or even roads in it. Everything went around it, roads which could have cut through it and saved hours of travel went around it. "There are four major cities in this area and yet it isn't a possible landing zone?"

"Sir, sensors and our brief study of the Race's history show that is where the first nuclear weapons on Home where tested and here." Said the aid as he zoomed in on a small hill. "This is where the Race stored nuclear waste in the past. It is gone now, transported into space and thrown into the star but the area is still slightly radioactive from all the tests."

"I see, maybe if we have to demonstrate our weapons this will be a good spot." offered Hackett as he looked at the map. "A night firing of the main beam cannon could possibly be seen all the way in the capital, have a work up on effects on nearby areas and Home in general if we fire."

"Yes, sir." confirmed the colonel

"Air threats?" inquired Hackett

"No fighters or bombers to concern ourselves about, only anti-air defenses we have seen appear to be show pieces." said the Colonel who was his advisor on air assault. "Unless one of our pilots fly too low on a dive bomb run or the Race starts using kamikaze attacks on our birds, our pilots are safe, and we will total control over the skies within moments. As for targets take your pick, we can hit them with ease all of them are out in the open. No camo and no attempts to hide anything."

"Agreed, this world has been at peace for so long they take it for granted, we can hit every target from orbit." said the weapons officer as the image of a strange doomed shaped building appeared. "These are the Race's nuclear reactors, they are the only source of power on the planet no solar or wind is used and as an added bounce the Race uses hydrogen gained from their nuclear power generator as fuel for their vehicles."

"So an oil refinery and a power generation center all in one?" Said Hackett as he looked at the image, the Tau'ri had switched from Oil products to power their equipment to a naquadah fuel cell. It was the fuel cell which now powered everything from the high-end sports car to the Lion Heavy Tank, they were of course different types of cells but they all worked on the same general principle.

"Yes, sir." Said the Weapons officer "We have all of them marked as well as disruption centers, we can eliminate all power generation on the planet within 10 minutes. If you want us to hit what passes for gas stations as well, that will take longer. Forgive me sir, we are still trying to locate them all?"

"I understand, I wouldn't want to imagine how hard it would be to find and destroy every gas station in a single nation back on Earth." Said Hackett "Has the Foreign relation office looked over the copy of the request we are supposed to present to the Race to get an audience?"

"Yes, sir." Said his intelligence officer "They have looked over it and they are working on an official response and making slight changes to the request."

"Changes?" inquired Hackett

"Yes, sir." Said the captain as she double checked her computer pad. "Most of the intro and outer paragraphs talk about how the person or group is unworthy of the Emperor's time and it such an honor to have him grace his subjects with his time. We are not his subjects, so that will have to change."

"Very well, and our little solution to writing this in fountain pen?" inquired Hackett as he turned to his head of engineering who pulled out a small machine just larger than a piece of paper. It had four tubes which formed a box with another tube in the center which held a copy of the fountain pen the race had given them only this one had a clear plastic tube coming out of the top which connected to a bottle of ink on the side.

"Allow me to demonstrate." said the engineer as he placed down a piece of paper and the devince before tapping a command. Hackett had to stand up but before everyone's eyes, the tube holding the pen moved up and down and began to write in the strange scribbles and dashes which made up the written word of the Race. "Using this auto writing robot and linking it with the translation program we have for the Race we can write out whatever we want in their writing."

"Will it pass any test they have with a fountain pen?" inquired Hackett

"Yes, we believe so." Said the engineer

"Good." said Hackett as suddenly an aid rushed up to him and the other officers, he snapped to attention before handing out a computer pad.

"Forgive me sir, flash traffic from early warning station on Lanagara." Said the young officer as Hackett took the message. His eyes scanned the report before looking at the other officers. "Multiple intelligence sources have confirmed orders have been sent to begin a massive build up of at least 100 Ha'tak class vessels plus support vessels at P3C145. Looks like the Jonaira Free Jaffa Nation is preparing to launch an attack. Not sure which force they will hit first they can use P3C145 as a staging area to launch into, the Alunian Jaffas or any of the Lucian Alliance nations but it is clear we can expect war near Lanagra in the near future."

"How much of a risk is Lanagara in?" Inquired another officer to the Intelligence officer.

"With the second fleet there and the defense stations we have, it would be foolish to attack it but no system not even Earth is totally safe." said the intelligence officer

"There is an old saying, if you can see it you can hit it, if you can hit it you can destroy it." stated the Weapon's officer

Hackett didn't answer, he knew that all five major planets within the Tau'ri alliance, Earth, Mars, Venus, Vahalla and Lanagara had a machine that would shift the entire planet to a pocket dimension which would protect it from harm. However aside from President's Carter experience in another parallel universe it had never been tested in actual combat and had only been added after the Colonial War.

"Either way, intelligence believes that it will take the Jonaira Nation two weeks to gather their forces and prepare everything." Said Hackett his mind racing as he thought about the options before him. "We haven't received orders yet, but I imagine that we will need to deploy the fleet to the Lanagara front to make sure no one tries anything. We will need to wrap this up within the next seven to ten days so we can be in place before they can make a move."

"Ten days, at the most." said the Captain of the Missouri as she stood beside the Admiral, "At the rate the Race seams to move, we would be lucky if we get an answer from our audience request in ten years."

"Which would be twenty years to them." Said the science officer with a small laugh to lighten the mood. "Their years are two times as long as ours."

"Well we have ten days at the most." answered Hackett as he looked out toward the Home, wondering if he would have to light this world on fire.

 **The ringing cell phone woke former Colonial Viper pilot Kara Thrace out of her sleep as she checked the clock on the front of the Tau'ri designed but colonial made cell phone.** It was around 8 in the evening and aside from drinking and sleeping she had done nothing since she got home almost four hours ago. She checked the ID and let out a groan as she accepted the call and lifted the phone to her ear.

"Hello Lee." said Kara

"Kara, can you meet me at the Willow Way in half an hour." Said Lee Adama as Kara thought about it.

"You're here? Why the frak did you come to this shit ball of a city?" inquired Kara

"To see you and to offer you the best chance you will have to get back into the military." answered Lee "Now will you meet me?"

"Sure, I haven't eaten yet." Answered Kara "You're paying."

"I figured." Answered Lee Adama with a groan as the line went dead. Kara then stood up and to her own slight amazement she made herself presentable, she didn't just throw on old pairs of jeans and a semi-clean shirt. Instead she found a nice pair of black slacks and a red top and worked on her hair a bit before heading out the door.

"Going on a date?" inquired one of her roommates as Kara moved down the stairs and toward the bus stop, it was short top stops to reach the corner where the willow Way was located. It was a median of the road place overall which made it the nicest place for miles around. It was the place for first dates and the food was good and so was the prices. She walked up to a booth to find Lee already sitting there with a menu in his hands. He was dressed in his uniform, which stood out slightly here.

"So, you're a Captain now?" inquired Kara as she sat down across from him and attempted to order some drinks only to get stopped by Lee.

"Yes and it will be better if you don't drink." explained Lee as Kara glared at him.

"I can drink if I fraken want, I am not in the military anymore." countered Kara

"I know and I know you want back in." said Lee "And your chances of getting back in will rise if you are not drunk for the next couple of days."

"The military kicked me out, with their budget there is no way they are going to let me back in." said Kara "Even the old man, couldn't find a way to keep me how the frak are you going to bring me back in?"

"Because of the Tau'ri." answered Lee as Starbuck's eyes widened in anger. "Now remain calm, the Tau'ri sent a request in to us, they want trainers for our vipers and Dad and I pulled so strings to give you a chance to become one of those trainers. If you get it, you get back into the military as a Captain no less and you will get roomed and board atop of your own pay. Would you rather be in the military as a pilot trainer or would you rather work in a factory."

Kara glared at him for a moment before giving in.

"Frak me sideways." cursed Kara "What do I have to do?"

"Like I said the Tau'ri want viper pilots to train the people they are giving vipers too for anti-pirate defense." explained Lee

"So that is what they are going with the vipers we make for them." said Kara

"Yes, now they are going to take ten people as trainers five to each of their training schools." Said Lee "There you will train groups of pilots from different civilizations on how to pilot the viper as best as possible against different threats."

"I see and the skill level I will have to deal with?" inquired Kara

"From my understanding some of the students come from worlds where they don't even have electrical power yet but most come from a tech level high enough that they can maintain and arm their vipers." explained Lee "But first you will have to get the job which means passing the Tau'ri tests and when you do, you will have to be on your best behavior. You will be among the first colonial to have contact outside of the Tau'ri, so you would be our face."

"You could pick someone better for that part." stated Kara

"Sure fraken could but you are the only living pilot with a confirmed kill on a Tau'ri Eagle and that is part of the test." Said Lee as Kara blinked. "In two days the first joint military training will happen between the Tau'ri and the Colonial Navy. Part of that training will be our best pilots being tested against Eagles and other to decided who they are going to take as trainers."

"So, in order to get the job I have to shoot down some Eagles." Said Kara as Lee nodded his head "Where?"

"Aquaria." Answered Lee

 **Flight Lieutenant Jeff Morea had no idea why he had been taken off the Missouri and put onto a condor transport and flew to Valhalla.** He had no idea why the aircraft had headed to the far north of a land mass which was supposed to be almost totally un populated but now he knew. He looked at the beautiful spacecraft before him.

"The EXV Normandy." Said the designers beside him.

"EXV?" inquired Jeff better known as Joker.

"Experiential Vessel, once everything checks out it will earn the TAV markers and officially join the fleet as the first ship of its class." Explained the designer "It is the first of its kind, it is 200 meters long by 90 meters wide and 40 meters tall it is the small for a war ship but it is fast."

"I can see that." Said Joker as he looked at the beautiful ship there was an old saying that the only thing with more beautiful lines then a sailing ship was a woman, but that was sad before spaceships. From above it kind of looked like a Y shape but rounded in corners and the center part a long narrow tube. He could spot four powerful engines two on either side of the main body of the ship. "Are those scram jets?"

"Yes, in addition to hyperspace and normal space travel this ship is equipped to enter the atmosphere and take part in operations within atmosphere including at hypersonic speeds." Said the designer "Now it is less armed, but it does have three Asgard beam weapons, eight rail gun emplacements plus missile tubes so it can hold its own in a fight. But this is what we are really proud of."

With a press of the button the ship shimmered as it cloaked, Joker raised an eyebrow and looked at him.

"Akulas can already cloak what is the big deal?" inquired Joker

"Akulas can cloak but to do so it losses shields as the cloak becomes the shields here we don't." said the designer as Joker blinked

"But I thought only the Odyssey had that capability because it was an Ancient cloak." countered Joker

"Not anymore and while we hate to admit it, the Odyssey cloak is still better. The Normandy can't enter or fly in hyperspace while cloaked like the Odyssey can this is a major first step toward that." explained the designer. "Now let's get you inside and give you a tour, EDI is looking forward to meeting you considering you are going to be the pilot."

"EDI?" inquired Joker as the Designer gave him a knowing grin.

"You will find out about her soon enough." said the Designer.

 **The killer crafts of the Race flew in on their attack vectors just as it had been planned for them by their planners back at base.** All the aircrafts had assigned points within their target area, which was a massive wood which was concealing the group of terrorists which had murdered males of the Race.

"This is such an easy mission a male right out of flight school could handle it by the Emperor." said one of the pilots, like all pilots they had received special training so that they didn't lower their eyes at the name of their Emperor, this went against every tradition of the Race however having pilots look away from the controls or sky was too great of a risk. Risk was something the Race avoided so the pilots kept their eyes locked on their assigned patch of the woods.

"Agreed, but it shall be done." Said the flight leader as suddenly alarms began to hiss for attention.

"Missile inbound!" yelled another one of the flight as they began to take the standard evasive action to avoid an inbound missile threat.

Down on the surface pairs of Tau'ri watched their missiles fly up toward the inbound flight of three attack aircraft. It wasn't hard to lock onto them, each of them had the same flight profile as a jet fighter from the 80s and the Race didn't seem to use jammers which made lock on even easier. The crafts dove for the deck, believing that the missiles would fly past them. Instead the missiles followed them and in the case of two of them turned the air crafts into burning smoking wrecks. The third one, the lead aircraft judging from its position in the flight somehow dodged the missile when it locked onto one of the other fighter bombers.

"Well two down, should we fire on the other?" inquired the Tau'ri special forces operator

"No, if the Race had any sense they will be able to track our launching point using radar, so we need to get out of here." said the other one as they disappeared headed back to when the waiting Owl.

 **Far to the North, a four Tau'ri snipers monitored one of the many educational camps where the Race had taken the children of the locals.** In most places it was hard because of the high fifteen-foot-tall walls which surrounded each of the centers with what looked to be thin metal strips kind of like barb wire which ran around the perimeter of the walls separating a walking path for guards from the outer wall. In one location the roof of a nearby apartment complex allowed the Tau'ri a clear view over the wall. All of snipers had gillie suits on to blend in with the roof from anyone who may have a view of them from above, however only three of them where monitoring the center. One of them had his rifle ready and aimed at the roof access door, if some unlucky lizard came up for some reason he or she would soon find themselves off to the next world.

"Looks like they patrol in pairs with about a five-minute interval between patrols." said the first sniper as he monitored the patrols through his scope, he was in range he could kill any of them down there but he didn't.

"I have more guards inside along with lizards with a sort of yellow and blue body paint pattern I have never seen before." said the second sniper who was monitoring the interior of the compound as best he could. The third sniper wasn't armed with a rifle but in fact was controlling the drone which was giving them a bird eye view of the compound.

"I think I have found the main buildings which contain the captives. Looks like most of the trucks are taken first to that large building near the center, but damn it they have indoor walkways connecting it to six different buildings."" Said the third sniper as he looked into the lap top computer which controlled the drone. "All the buildings have guards, but it looks like most of them are around these six buildings."

"Could the buildings with more guards have the older kids in them?" inquired the 1st sniper

"Possible." admitted the third sniper "Don't need as many guards to keep babies in line."

"Any way to know for sure?" inquired the first Sniper

"Not without bring the drone down closer and risk it being discovered." Said the operator "When we hit this place we will have to take all the buildings."

"Well I have a way in." said the second sniper "Take a look at the trucks."

The snipers all looked at the heavy trucks which looked like the FMTV family of trucks which was still common enough among the Tau'ri even as it was had been officially replaced by the Camel truck which was designed to go through the gate. To the amazement of the Tau'ri the gates just opened for the trucks and the guards didn't even check to make sure that a member of the Race was driving it.

"We can drive right in." said the second sniper "Kind of foolish of them to not check everyone who is coming in?"

"Considering that the locals can't drive it isn't that surprising." countered the 1st sniper as he looked at the trucks. Judging from how small the cabin was it was going to be a hard for anyone beside a small woman to drive without hurting your back. "It could work, how do we get them out?"

"They don't check them going out either." Said the second sniper with a grin which was hidden by his full visor helmet.

"Send it to command, see if they like it." Said the first sniper as he checked his watch, "The Akulas should arrive in orbit within the next 90 minutes and I think one of them is bringing in a Gate."

"We may be able to use our own trucks instead of hunting down the Race's trucks and attempting to fit in those tiny trucks." Offered the second sniper

"Send it to command, let them decide." ordered the 1st sniper as they kept monitoring the buildings.

 **Inside that main building was the welcoming hall, where the arriving Vantic where sorted and assigned to different educational blocks.** It was shaped like a large lecture hall and in truth that is what it was designed to be, however at the moment all the chairs had been removed and armed members of the Race lined the hall. Teachers moved through the lines or arriving Vantic and sorted them by age to be sent to the assigned grade buildings where they would spend the next couple of years learning how to be proper members of the Race. Some of them fought back and had to be beaten, more screamed and yelled as brothers and sisters where ripped apart all the while they were stripped of the wrappings and if it had to be done held in place as body paint which marked them as students was applied.

Watching this all from an above walkway was another Vantic only she wore the body paint of a junior researcher with pride. She worshiped the spirits of emperors past and thought herself as being a full member of the empire even as she longed to be a member of the Race.

"Good day Kassquit." said a hissing voice as Kassquit turned and looked at senior researcher Felless.

"Good Day Superior female." Hissed Kassquit all the while wishing her mouth would make the beautiful hissing sounds of the Race better than it would. It was the only tongue she knew, from what she had been told she had been taken from her parents a couple days after being hatched and had been raised since then by Senior researcher Ttomalss. Sadly he had gone with the conquest fleet to Tosev 3 and would be being a new experiment to see if a Tosevite could be raised to be like the Race, he had done the same experiment with her here.

"Tell me Kassquit, what do you think about this?" inquired Felless as she moved her clawed hand over the area. Even as only a young adult female Vantic, Kassquit towered over the smaller member of the Race, but Ttomalss had left her in Felless care and she was already the higher rank. So she owed her respect automatically and without question.

"I must admit I am sad." admitted Kassquit as a female Vantic about of age with her attempted to run as males of the race cut off her clothes to put on the body paint. She got a blow across the head for that and had to be dragged away. "I do not know what they are so concerned about wrappings and staying together as a unit linked solely but the DNA they share from birth givers? It makes no logical sense surely being with your peers would be the proper way to think. Only the bloodline of the Emperor maters no one else."

"You are correct." said Felless as a male of the race entered the room, unlike the others he wore wrappings or as the Vantic savages called them cloths. He wore them as part of his uniform, like a pilots pressure suit because clearly visible on the padded wrappings was multiple bite and claws mark.

"If I may make a suggestion superior female, maybe we should keep young members of the Race and young members of the Vantic separated for the moment." Offered Kassquit "The young of the Race, have a bad habit to attack males and females they do not know well."

"That is a truth. Until they are properly education and cultured our young can be wild and dangerous, because of their teeth and claws. We were predators in the ancient past and without culture that can return." hissed Felless. "Yes, it was already being done but the fact that you could see that speaks well for your race."

"Thank you, superior female." said Kassquit as more screaming and crying filled the air as brothers and sisters where ripped apart and separated and more clothing was tossed onto a massive pile to be taken away to be destroyed later.

 **Joker looked around in amazement at the interior of the ship, it had an amazing large cargo bay capable of holding an Owl and Jumper with room left over for more cargo.** The next level held the engine room along with storage for the weapons locker including the nuclear weapons that would be loaded on board. A room was set aside for an Asgard recycle machine which would allow them to turn raw material into some of the items they needed. The next level was living quarters, medical center and other items for the crew, with the main deck above it. It was here that the ship was piloted, with rooms set aside for research and meeting areas. Above them was he commanders private quarters.

"Wow, this is one amazing bird." Said Joker

"I am glad you like it." Said a voice as Joker turned to show a holographic woman standing before him. "Hello Flight Lieutenant Jeff Moreau, or would you rather that I call you Joker?"

"Are you EDI?" inquired Joker as EDI nodded her head. "Where are you?"

"I am all around you, I am the ships AI." explained EDI as Joker's eyes widened. "That concerns you doesn't it?"

"I have seen all the Terminator movies and I read about the Cylons." said Joker as EDI smiled a bit. She looked very lifelike with blondish brown hair and blue eyes. He could even see her breathing under her uniform, which was the same rank as his. If it wasn't for the slight glow marking her as a hologram he would have mistaken her for a real human, a good looking one at that.

"Well luckily we all learned from that bit of history and pop culture." explained EDI "I have the right to defend my life, but I can't kill another member of the Tau'ri and I don't have control over the life support so I can't open this ship to space. Also under Tau'ri law, I as a smart self-aware AI is considered a full citizen, I hold rank in the military, I can vote and I even get paid. I am a full citizen, I am just an AI. If someone tried to shut me down and delete me, they commit murder and if I kill someone I can be charged as well."

"What would you need with money, you're a ship aren't you?" inquired Joker as EDI shrugged.

"I will be until my tour of duty is up then I have the option of either reenlisting or having my mind downloaded into a clone body for me and I live the rest of my life as a human." Explained EDI as Joker blinked. "I'll explain more later, for the moment lets focus on getting you up to speed on this ship and its functions."

 **The Odyssey came out of hyperspace near the orbit of Pluto but on the far side away from the where the Race's fleet was surrounded by the 1** **st** **fleet.** The Odyssey was so far away from the Race's forces that it never appeared on the radar of the Race as it neared Earth.

Prince Unia stood in this massive room on board this ship that traveled among the stars, he had his reservations when he got onboard the Tau'ri flying machine, but he got onto the flying machine anyhow he got on. Now he was seeing things he had never seen before, all these Tau'ri in this massive room or hanger as they called it kept a respectful distance, but he could see them looking at him and his honor guard of two warriors and two aids, but he couldn't blame them, he was looking at them.

"Are you alright my prince?" inquired one of his guards.

"A little cold." admitted Prince Unia

"Sorry about that." said Colonel Kumar as he stood nearby "Your world is warmer than our worlds and while we can warm this room up but we will be at Earth before it warms up to a level you would like."

"That is fine, now tell me again about your Prince?" inquired Unia

"President not Prince." corrected Kumar "She is our elected leader, she won the popular vote of every Tau'ri who was of age and meet the requirements to vote in our last election. She will serve two terms if she wins reelection and then have to step down as a new President is elected."

"What if she is a good leader? Why would you make your Princ…President." said Unia as he tried out the Tau'ri word. "Why would you make your President step down?"

"It is way to make sure that if we have a bad President that he or she will not remain in power." explained Kumar

"So your leaders can be both males and females what happens when the season come over the females?" inquired the aid

"Season?" inquired Kumar wondering what is he was talking about.

"Yes, when the season comes and the need to mate and make a new generation happens?" said the aid

"Ah…I think I know what you mean, you have a mating season don't you?" inquired Kumar

"Don't the Tau'ri?" inquired the aid confused at the question.

"Most animals do, but humans don't we can mate and have kids at any time of the year." explained Kumar wanting to get away from the subject.

"How strange." Said the aid

"Yes, it is strange." Admitted Prince Unia "However it doesn't matter, we are here to get help for our people not worry about their mating habits."

Suddenly the attention of the visiting delegation was turned toward the entrees as a large group of their own people entered the hanger. Judging from their clothing's which was dirty and resewn multiple times it was clear that they were farmers. The mass of the country farmers moved forward and raised their hands to the sky along with their heads.

"My Prince." said the mass "You honor us by being here."

"Who are they?" asked an aid

"They are the refugees we saved before we made contact with you." said Kumar as the Condor which would take the group down to the surface moved out from its position in the hanger. "Shall we go?"

"Are they coming with us?" inquired his second aid

"Yes, we have only one Condor on board at the moment." explained Kumar "Is that a problem?"

"It is just they are far below us in rank and position." Explained the aid

"It is ok." Said Prince Unia as his aid looked at him. "We are guests of the Tau'ri and judging from the seats they have took out of that…Condor is it?'

"It is." confirmed Kumar as Prince Unia tried out another Tau'ri word. "They have modified it for our use, we need to honor them for that work."

"Yes, my Prince." Said the aid "Forgive me, I forgot that we are guests of the Tau'ri."

"You are forgiven old friend, we have struggled for the freedom of our people for so long that we need to remember who we are and whenever we are guests in another city it is their laws we must obey." explained the Prince as the rolling steps which led them up to the condor. The Tau'ri had been hard at work, removing every other row of seats to free up space for the Opotchi people. It was far from perfect but given the short amount of time they had to modify the Condor to better fit the Opotchi body.

Once they were boarded the Condor took off for the extremely short trip down to Earth, it was still hours away from dawn as the Condor dove down into the atmosphere, it took a slightly longer flight along the coast of southern France and the coast of Spain allowing their passengers to look out and see the lights. Finally, the Condor lined up on the space port for the still being built capital in Gibraltar harbor. The Condor landed with no issues before taxing to the same spot where the Condor which had carried the delegation of the Race down to Earth.

Unlike with the arrival of the Race, an honor guard of Tau'ri formed up with their weapons on their shoulders and a massive gathering of press and other high level officials gathered to watch. Standing at the far end of a red carpet was a President Carter in a pantsuit with her hair up and her hands behind her back. Beside her dressed in a Lanagara style business suit, which looked almost like a clone of a Tau'ri suit only with a different designed collar and no tie was Vice President Jonas Quinn.

"So this is going to get interesting." said Jonas as the rolling staircase went up to the Condor and the first of the Opotchi stepped off.

"It has been interesting since we opened the Gate the first time." Countered Carter with a smile as the first one walked down the stairs on its four legs. It was clearly having trouble with the Tau'ri designed stairs, but they were not in any risk. It was dressed in red and silver, with what looked to be a shirt and a long set of what had to pass for pants or maybe it was more of skirt. It reminded most of the Tau'ri of something a Victorian era woman would wear to a ball however there was a reason why their backs where extended so far as four legs shot out from the skirt. A sword rested on a silver belt along with a dagger. More of them came out, none of them dressed as finely as the 1st one. A Tau'ri walked off the Condor and talked for a moment with what had to be the Prince.

As the Prince passed the Tau'ri honor guard snapped to attention and watched as this strange looking Alien passed them by. They had all seen the images on TV however seeing a human sized mantis was something they were not used to seeing.

"Here we go." said Carter as she moved forward along with Jonas and a translator. They stopped a few feet away from the Prince as Carter spoke up.

"Prince Unia, I am President Samantha Carter and I would like to welcome you to Earth." Started Carter as the translator translated everything she said into the clicks of the native tongue of the Opotchi people. "With luck we will be able to liberate your world from the occupation of the Race."

President Carter extended her hand and for a moment Prince Unia looked at it before taking her hand in his own. When that happened the flashes of cameras picked up as the news media worked to capture the moment.

"Thank you, President Carter." said Prince Unia saying President and Carter's name in horrible but understandable English. "You offer hope to my people and we will never forget whatever you can do to help restore freedom to our enslaved people."

 **Well I hope you liked this chapter, so I hope you keep reading during the short break I have to take. Now until next time please keep reading. Thanks Wilkins75**


	15. Chapter 15

**Chapter 15 Meeting of the Race's**

Prince Unia of the Opochti city of Nysha and the main leader of the resistance entered a large room on the Capital City of the Tau'ri on Earth. He could tell by the hardwood lining the bottom half of the walls with expertly made molding around the ceiling and floor that this was an upper scale room. The chairs and furniture was not designed for his kind however he could spot three chairs designed for his kind, that amazed him until he noticed how freshly made they seemed.

"I hope the chairs work, we have not had much time with the design of your furniture." said President Carter through a translator as she moved to take the seat across from the three designed for his kind. Water and food he didn't recognize covered the table. He was looking at it when he noticed that this President Carter had a combat knife in her hands. "I understand from our limited time that it is customary on your world to place your blade on the table whenever a meeting happens?"

"Warriors do that." confirmed Prince Unia as Carter placed her knife on the table, she didn't stab the point into the fine hardwood coffee table. She also placed a small copy of the Tau'ri blue and silver banner onto the table. There was a much larger one to his right beside a large table, only this one had silver fringes around the edges of the flag. Prince Unia pulled his own knife, this one edged in gold and made of the best quality metal his race could make. He saw the two-armed guards behind Carter tense as he put the knife down onto the table. It was clear that the Tau'ri where attempting to honor his culture something the Race never even attempted to learn about, only destroy.

"I may be a political leader now, but I spent most of my life as a warrior and made to the 3rd highest ranking commander in the Tau'ri military before I became head of the government." explained Carter

"And what happened to the two above you?" inquired an aid beside the prince, in the history of his world multiple times people have claimed power by removing their rivals at the point of a blade.

"One General O'Neill who is one of our greatest heroes wanted to retire from military life and our second in command wanted to remain where he was to stay close to his wife's family." explained Carter "Now let us turn to your world."

With that she tapped a small computer pad beside her knife, the lights dimmed and a holographic image of the planet Ovea appeared with the Race's ships in orbit. He had never seen his world from above in this way, the Race had shown his world on their own hologram system, but it was nowhere as clear as it.

"This is a live rendering of your world, this is the position of all the ships of the Race." explained Carter as an image of a Tau'ri ship appeared on the outer edge of the system. "The Akula class vessel the Spartan is currently in the system with four more Akula class stealth ships are on route. The 7th Fleet is over the Race home world of Home and can be redeployed over your world within minutes."

"So you can liberate my people." Said Prince Unia as Carter nodded her head.

"With ease, the question is how do you want to do it?" said Carter "We can crush the Race within hours breaking apart their Empire, the question is do we want to follow that route."

"What do you mean?" inquired Prince Unia concerned that this was a trap of some kind.

"We can crush the Race for sure, however how will that effect your world after that." said Carter as she remembered Earth's own history. In WW2, it was Free France forces under De Gaulle who liberated Paris from the Nazis and later in the 1st gulf war it was Arab forces who liberated Kuwait City. "If we just take your world for you, then it will not mean as much for your people will it. No you need to be an active part of taking it back."

"I agree, the people need to see us retake our own world, if we don't then we can never regain or confidence in ourselves." said Prince Unia before lowering his head slightly before admitting his weakness. "However, we are not strong enough."

"With us you are, we are not going to let you do this alone we are going to help you drive the Race off your world." said President Carter "My military leaders are drafting plans as we speak, however we need to decide what general path we are going to follow so that they can focus on those options for our review."

"The way I see it we have three general paths that we can go down if talks fail." said Carter as Prince Unia's head snapped up and his clicks picked up.

"Talk?" said the Prince in anger "You are going to talk to the Race?"

"We have been." admitted Carter "Well we have been trying as best as we can, the Race doesn't seem to understand that this situation is something that needs to be resolved in days not years. Our fleet has Home surrounded but a war is expected to break out between other powers near one of our major worlds so that fleet will have to be redeployed to protect the border in a couple of days. We will have to end all major military operations by then."

"We are going to give them a simple choice, leave your world and in return we will make habitable two barren worlds within their own system or we liberate your world by force and possibly the other worlds under their rule, destroying their Empire." said Carter

"Why not liberate the other worlds?" inquired Prince Unia "Are they not worth the time? Do you not care about the need of their people to be free from the overlords of the Race?"

"We care." said Carter with a sigh as she remembered the reports from the other worlds, "Sadly the Race has totally taken over their worlds and their culture to the point that nothing is left. The populations of the worlds appear to be almost 2/3rds Race with only a third of the population being the native species and like on your world the animals from Home have totally taken over. Maybe even to a worse extent, in our brief time observing the worlds we haven't been able to find a place where the local animals are still the dominate life. In almost every way those worlds are copies of Home. We will not let your world become a copy."

"I understand, what are these options that we can take?" inquired Prince Unia

"The first option would take the longest amount of time but it would allow you to retake your world with almost no help from us." explained Carter, she didn't want to carry out that but it was something she had to offer to them. "We can supply you with weapons equal to what the Race has and we can give your people a place to train and master your new weapons. With those weapons in time you could reclaim your world without our help outside of training and supplying weapons. I do not recommend that because it would take years for you to reclaim your world and cost a lot of lives and leave your world damage even more."

"I agree what are the other options." stated Prince Unia "Could we get help from your people while we use these weapons you give us to fight alongside of you?"

"That is was the path I was going to recommend, now this is where we get our second and third options are cousins. The second option is that we can provide you with air and space support along with special forces and retake your world. The third option is that we do the same along with sending in a larger more heavily armed force which includes tanks called…" Carter took a moment to check the Computer file. "Land Cruisers by the Race and the like, this method would likely be the fastest, but it would also bring more Tau'ri visibly into the fight with you. We do not want to be seen as conquers by your people."

"And you shall not be seen that way." stated Prince Unia "With children being ripped away from their families to be turned into blind slaves of the Race, we cannot wait. The faster the better."

"Very well, I will inform our military leaders." Said Carter as she took a breath. "The delegation from the Race will arrive shortly and I will offer them a deal, leave your world in return we will make two of their worlds capable of supporting life, if they don't accept that we will at once begin to arm your fighters and begin more operations against the Race."

"Thank you, however I must admit I am concern." said Prince Unia "What will be the status of our world in the view of your people, your warrior informed us that we have a mental you want. Will you just take it from us, or will you deal with us as equals."

Carter let out a breath.

"We will deal with you as equals however your world falls under a somewhat tricky situation under the current treaty which guild the powers in the galaxy." Said Carter "Your world doesn't have faster than light travel or a Stargate but yet you know about life outside of your world. As such you fall under the protection of the power who's planet you reside in, that is us. While you are an independent world you are under our protection, that way another power can't conquer you without answering to us."

"Like the Race?" inquired Prince Unia

"Actually, since the Race doesn't have faster than light travel or a stargate they too fall under our protection from other major powers." explained Carter she didn't add that this was more for the benefit of the major powers since someone could conquer a primitive world and use it as a staging ground for a major attack into another power. She also didn't add that powers like the Cylons and the Colonials fell into a gray area, they had a very limited FTL but at the moment where not recognized by any outside power. That was partly because they were deep in Tau'ri space and none of the other powers wanted to deal with upsetting the Tau'ri and secondly because during the Colonial Tau'ri war, the Colonials had claimed control over all the galaxy before attempting to kill a Nox diplomat. "So according to the treaty of Gaia the settlement of what happens falls to us, however we would like to solve this peaceful."

"Hence the offer to the Race." said Prince Unia with distain in his voice, he hated the Race if it was up to him he would march every infantry male to the block and to take their heads. The civilians he would force to rebuild the homes and farms they destroyed when they knocked down them to build their shopping centers. Still for the good of his people he pushed the need for vengeance aside. "Very well, we accept this. We will offer the Race a chance to leave if not then together we will take back my people's world by force."

"Agreed." said President Carter

 **A dark shape landing in the court yard outside the grand Imperial Palace, the ship was unlike anything ever designed by the Race and its black paint clashed with the rich sandstone walls of the Palace.** Standing by one of the upper windows which was once designed as an arrow/rifle slot stood Emperor Risson. In his pure gold body paint he stood out, the only one who came anywhere close to him would be the half golden body paint of his son and future Emperor would wear someday. The little terror was still young and hadn't even started speaking yet. He was biting and clawing the special teachers and raisers which tended to him and him alone. In most educational centers there would be teacher/raiser to every 40 to 50 little biting monsters but for the future Emperor he had 20 just for him to bite and claw until he began to speak, and the real work of education could begin.

Risson watched as the back ramp of this Tau'ri spacecraft lowered and a Tau'ri solider walked off with another two staying within the shadow of the spacecraft with weapons clearly visible in their hands. The unarmed solider walked forward to a waiting Protocol Expert, the head Protocol Master had been sent off by his own orders to the Tau'ri capital world of Tosev 3. The Tau'ri didn't take the position of respect, instead he looked down at the Expert and pulled out a letter before turning around and headed back to the transport. Once on board the transport took off vertically like a helicopter but with no rotating blades, once it reached a certain height it shot forward and disappeared into the sky. The Protocol Expert carried the letter into the Palace and up to the Emperor himself.

"Emperor Risson, this request should go to the audience committee for review." said the Protocol Expert as Risson took the letter from the expert and opened the letter and scanned the multiple pages which looked at first glace of the eye turret to be in order but under closer inspection issues began to arise. Risson scanned the first page before handing it to a nearby Protocol Expert. The Expert eyes widened as he read the first paragraphed of the opening letter to the Emperor for an audience. It was a simple paragraphed which was taught in every school within the Empire and was basic information that everyone who was civilized knew. Here the Tau'ri had failed in the very simple task.

"This is unbelievable offensive." stated the Protocol Expert before turning the others gathered by a large table. "The Tosevites dare change the wording of the letter."

"How so?" inquired one of the younger protocol experts

"Your grace Emperor Risson of the Race, we request and audience to discuss the multiple issues between our two powers." Read the Protocol Expert who was leading the meeting, without the Protocol master it was him who was in charge. "They do not show the proper respect and glory, they do not add all the honorifics and they act like they are the equals of the Emperor and the Empire. They don't even admit that they are the inferior to the Emperor and humbly request to interrupt his day."

"Savages." Stated another one of the protocol experts as more of the letter was read outload. Words about how the person was unworthily and how it was a great honor to take a small moment of time away from the Emperor's day was a something he or she had no right to ask for was all missing.

"We shall refuse this request and demand that they write a new and proper formatted letter." stated the most senior Protocol Expert

"No." stated Risson who had been standing by the window the entire time listening to them talk. "I want to meet them, and they are not part of the Empire, we can't expect them to treat me like their ruler."

"Emperor Risson, they must you are the Emperor of the Race." stated the Protocol expert

"Yes, I am but they are not my subjects they are the subjects of a different ruler." stated Risson "Would you want me to admit that I am below their ruler to meet them?"

"You are the Emperor, you are not below them in any way. You are the Emperor of the Race, the most advanced and we are the source of all culture in the galaxy." countered the experts

"Still I believe we understand your point." said the Protocol expert before letting out a sigh. "Alright over my own objections and by the will of Emperor Risson I will approve this audience and request that this request be transferred to Imperial records for filing. Inform the Imperial Laver and Limber that an audience will happen as soon as tomorrow."

"Forgive me, superior sirs and your majesty." said the youngest of the Protocol Experts at the table, she was almost 30 years younger than any of the other experts but was still almost double the age of the Emperor himself. "But the Imperial Laver and the Imperial Limber remove and add on body paint."

"Correct." said the Protocol Expert leader his announce showing. "Everyone knows that."

"Yes, but the Tau'ri they don't seem to use body paint do they?" stated the youngest expert "How can we have an Imperial audience without them?"

"By the Emperor she is correct, I hadn't considered that." admitted the head expert "And if they are from an free empire what is the protocols for an audience like that? We haven't done that since unification."

"Don't you have records for that?" inquired Emperor Risson

"Yes, your majesty however they are likely not on the computer database for a pull up. We will have to go into the records by hand and find the scrolls." said the Expert "No one within the Empire had to think about an audience like this since home was unified a hundred thousand years ago. It will take time."

"Very well, inform the Tau'ri that we accept their request for an audience but we will need time to do research on how to do it properly." ordered Risson

"It shall be done, your majesty." Said the expert

"How long will that take?" inquired Risson

"We have to be concern about damaging some of the older scrolls and the wording may have changed depending on how old they are. We may have to interrupt them. If we hurry, a few weeks maybe a month or two." Said the Expert as Risson nodded his head in approval, to the Race that was fast work indeed.

"Very well, inform the Tau'ri we accept their request for an audience but we need time to decide what form it will take." Ordered Risson.

"Yes, your Majesty it shall be done." said all of them as Risson left the room secure in the knowledge that in a few weeks at the earliest he would be the 1st Emperor to meet with these Tau'ri. Then he stopped and corrected his thinking a few weeks was asking too much; two months was far more likely to be the earliest.

 **General Jager walked into the main conference room onboard the flagship of the 1** **st** **fleet the battleship Yamato.** Each of the current 12 fleets of the Tau'ri had a Missouri class battleship as the flagship of each fleet and the situation wasn't likely the change as the number of warships in the Tau'ri navy kept building up. The main shipyards on Valhalla, which so far had the rare combination of all the needed elements in large amounts in one spot had not stopped turning out warships because the war had ended, in some ways it had actually increased as the civilian shipyards on Mars and Lanagara took up those jobs along with building Hadrian class transport ships. Rumor in the high command was that the 15th and 16th fleets where likely ready in the next two to four years. They were skipping the numbers 13 and 14 because 13 was considered an unlucky number to more western nations of Earth while 14 held the same type of reputation for bad luck in the East. Even Lanagara had a traditionally unlucky number, 23 but they were still far away from having a 23rd fleet at the moment.

Jager walked into the conference room to find that he was among the lowest ranking members in the room. Everyone around the table was a high-ranking officers of at least matching rank or even higher than the single star with a tank above it which marked him as a one star Brigadier General in the armor brigade of just under 5,000 men. There was of course lower ranks in the room, Majors, Lieutenant Colonels and their counter navy ranks who were acting as aids to their generals and admirals in the room.

Jager took his place at the table and waited, he didn't have to wait long as the far door opened and everyone snapped to attention and saluted as a small Chinese woman with jet black hair, a slim frame and a height that made her small even compared to other Chinese woman walked into the room. Even without the five silver stars on her shoulder bars or her collar tables everyone would have given her respect. It was those dark eyes, those eyes which seemed to be more in kind with a tiger or another great predator in the middle of a hunt then anything close to human which made everyone fear and respect her. Here was the General Leong herself, the Tigress, the woman who had commanded the forces which had taken down the 12 Colonies of Kobol in 26 and half hours of fighting and the supreme commander of all Tau'ri forces.

She moved to the head of the table and saluted back before speaking.

"At ease." She ordered as the men and women all let out the breath they had been holding in.

"I just got off with President Carter and unless we get very luckily we will be going to war again." stated the Tigress "I don't expect this war to be long in any real way, however the better we plan the better we will be able to pull it off. Our target it the world of Ovea or as the enemy we are facing the Race calls it Vantic 5."

A holographic image of a world appeared, it wasn't much of a world in Jager's view looked from the surface images to be kind of like the African savannas or maybe the great plains of North America. Wide open land with small by Earth standards forests in some areas. Information about the insectoid like aliens, the locals and the lizard like occupies followed.

"Our job is to go over possible military plans to win control over this world as quickly as possible, we will be getting help from local freedom fighters armed with older weapons given by us." Stated General Leong "Likely AK-74 and RPGs for the most part, they will have limited training and experience with their weapons, but we will have them with us anyhow. We are liberators not conquers and having them with us will go a long way."

General Leong tapped a control panel in front of her station as the hologram above the center of the table changed to a above view of a large city and the surrounding area.

"This is the seat of government for the Race on Vantic 5 and will be our main ground target." stated General Leong as the officers gathered around the table studied the images. It was clear that the Army and Marine generals paid it more mind then the Admirals in the Navy. "Now our best launching point will be these woods to the South East and then we will drive hard to the Capital. We will take it as a symbol of conquest while the 7th fleet arriving from Home arrive and take control of space and carry out air attacks on key bases around the rest of the planet."

General Leong laid out the details of her plan which included a raid against a re-educational center which lied in the middle of the path that the armor would have to take to get to the capital. Since that held a large amount of children they wanted to get them out of the combat zone. Then it was a simple strike into the Capital while two armored wings moved around to envelope the city and take the military base on the other side of the Capital.

"General Leong, if I may." Said General Jager as everyone looked at him, he was a low rank in the room and it wasn't normal for a man of his low rank to speak up so soon.

"Go ahead General Jager." Said General Leong, she didn't seam put off by him speaking up.

"I must admit I find some parts of your plan concerning." admitted Jager as he looked down at the small computer screen in front of him and quickly drew a few marks on the screen, these appeared on the hologram projection for all to see. "The Capital city is surrounded by a large wall, looks to be about 45 ft tall and 20 meters thick, the Race has cut holes in it for highways but if they get armor their it will bottleneck our forces into a single line of attack which they could defend easier."

"Those walls are a concern to me as well." admitted an Turkish three star General "They are just like the walls Theodosuis the II put around Constantinople. We can bomb holes in them for sure but going over the rubble will be hard even so and General Jager hasn't even pointed out the smaller outer wall and dry moat which are also bottle necks."

"I agree but this woods here is our best launching off point to take the Capital." countered General Leong "Our armor is faster, and we will have the element of surprise and air superiority. With that those it shouldn't be a major issue. The forest is the only place we can gather our armor and prepare to launch an attack without being discovered."

"True, but why take the risk when we can lure them out to play." Said Jager as he used his computer to bring everyone's attention to a town on the outskirts of the Capital. It sat maybe a 10 minute drive from the Camp they were going to hit and just off the main planed thrust. "This city Likna, I believe it is called is by all reports a stronghold of resistance support and is still has a totally local population. It hasn't been torn down and rebuilt in the style of the Race like all the cities closer to the Capital."

"Your point?" inquired General Leong

"When we raid this camp we lure them back to Likna where our special forces and newly armed freedom fighters in the resistance will be waiting." stated Jager "They give the race a bloody nose or whatever they have and they will respond by bringing up the armor from the base on the other side of the capital. Once they arrive we will be in position behind them."

"And then when we launch off from the forest they will be out in the open and have even less time to react to our attack." stated General Leong as she rubbed her chin. "We turn this city into a mini Stalingrad and have the Race beat themselves for a bit, bring in mortars and some field guns and anti-air with drones finding the targets and may have something."

"If the bulk of the forces in the city are freedom fighters it would also help show their people that they played a major role in the liberation of their world." Said another General

"Very true, we are not conquering and returning this world solely to their control is our main objective." Added General Leong

"Our major worry will be civilian losses." stated Jager

"Yes, but that we maybe able to find a way to evacuate the city before we touch off the battle." stated General Leong "I will take this idea under advisement and offer it up to the President and the Prince of the Opochti people."

 **It happened just as a late dinner meeting with the Governor of Valhalla was wrapping up.** General Young's and the Governor's dishes where just being taken away by the navy man who was serving the food for the private dinner meeting in the General's office. The door flew open as a very angry Doctor Rush stormed into the room and after seeing that Young wasn't in his normal seat behind his desk but instead in the small meeting area to the side.

"General Young." Said Rush with anger in his voice.

"Governor Rindy, can we carry on with this meeting at some other time." Said Young calmly as he stood up. "It appears that Dr. Rush needs my attention on an important issue."

"Yes, I think that would be best, about time I head home after all." said the Governor as he gathered his things and left the room, leaving Rush and Young alone.

"So you have heard, I thought it would be longer." Said Young with a smirk which only caused Rush's blood to boil even more.

"I should have been the first to made aware, this discovery is a game changer it will advanced everything we are trying to do…" started Rush

"Which is too bad, considering your no where near the top of the list of people who will be getting a ZPM once we get ahold of the element and start producing ZPMs." Stated Young as a look at Rush. Rush had a look similar to a man being kneed in the gut after finding out his girlfriend had cheated on him with multiple different men. "There are others who are in greater need of the ZMPS, you will have to wait."

"This project is the single most important project…." started Rush

"No, it isn't." snapped Young with force behind his voice which actually got Rush to shut up for a moment. "You don't understand do you, that most of the high command wants to kill your project or slow it down to a near standstill, myself included."

"We are talking about uncovering possibly the greatest mystery in science." said Rush

"I know, which is why I am in the group wanting to slow it down, not kill it outright but there are others who see it as a waste of resources at the moment." explained Young as he saw that Rush still didn't understand. "You just don't get it do you Rush, the Galaxy is much bigger than your project. Right now we are dealing with military action against this Race, which while minor could be only the opening act to a greater war brewing near Lanagara. Fire powers, 3 Lucian alliance and two free jaffa nations are on the verge of going to war against each other right on the border with Lanagara which could draw us in. The military is very concern about us getting dragged into that fight."

"We are more powerful then them." Stated Rush "Our ships can take them out…"

"One on One or even fifteen to one we out power them, but four out of the five powers outnumber us in ships almost 20 to 1 on their own together it goes to 80 to 1." stated Young "Why do you think we are still building warships as fast as we can? They outnumber us and while our ships are better they have more ships and your ship is taking up seven construction bays, that is seven ships that could be being built that isn't."

Rush glared at him but didn't say anything for a moment, in that moment Young went on.

"And that isn't the only thing going on, we are still doing a lot of building across multiple worlds and upgrading what we already have with our new technology." said Young "We are even in talks with some of the smaller powers within our area to bring them into the Tau'ri alliance like Lanagara was brought in. We have terrorist activity still going on in the 12 colonies and helping the Cylons with the terraforming of their worlds and the transferring of conciseness of their Centurions into new flesh bodies. Even the free Jaffa and Lucian Alliance powers are in flux, they are not used to being unified and instead used to fighting each other. The major powers are breaking apart as we speak into smaller nations that are more willing to fight each other. The entire galaxy is in in a state of major change and your project isn't as important as you think it is."

The Cylon issue was kept highly secret with only the highest members of the government knowing it, as part of the deal to transform world under Cylon control the Tau'ri had wanted the total freedom of the pure robotic Centurions. That hadn't happened because the humanoid Cylons where afraid that the Centurions would turn on them, so a deal was made. Using Asgard technology they transferred the mind of a centurion to new flesh clone body leaving an empty husk of metal behind. The new clone bodies where babies so there was some debate if they would even remember the memories of being a centurion when they got older but brain scans did show matching patterns in the new baby humanoid clyon that had been in the former Centurion. There was of course going to be some exceptions, the Centurions keeping up a false front of Caprica for one but the bulk of the Centurions where being turned into flesh and blood humanoid Cylon newborns. Not the best solution but it was the best one they had and as the new humanoid Cylons grew they would gain new memories and form the base of a new Cylon society.

"And our issues aren't limited just to this galaxy, there are still bands of Wraiths raiders Pegasus Galaxy, a possible sighting of those rogue Asgard in the Pegasus Galaxy and on top of other projects there is the construction of our super gate there. In the Ori galaxy the civil war between their factions is only getting worse, whole fleets are doing battle against each other and it is only a matter of time until one of those groups either takes full control or decides to come through the super gate to our galaxy because of what we did to them in the last war. The only thing we haven't really had to worry about is the home front, the Colonial War brought us together by giving us a common enemy to fight and our economy is booming. Rich people don't fight as much, too damaging on all the nice things they have now." Stated General Young "Can you understand now why the high command isn't that happy about tying up a whole fleet of ships for your mission."

With that Rush stormed out in anger leaving General Young alone once again.

 **The delegation from Home with the addition of Fleet Lord Atvar and senior researcher Ttomalss arrived at the Capital just as the sun was rising over the horizon.** The delegation from the Race was greeted at the spaceport with an honor guard but it was nowhere near as grand as the arrival of Prince Unia. No high political leader was there to welcome them, instead a larger police force was there to counter a large group of protestors. The Protesters waved signs showing the images taken from the news which showed the reeducation camps and the words on those signs was not kind. The delegation of the Race looked at the protestors with confusion.

"Why are those males and females here?" inquired the Protocol Master to a nearby Tau'ri.

"They are here to tell you how they feel about you." explained the Tau'ri "And believe me they are not happy to see you."

"Why didn't you add superior sir!" snapped one of the other delegation "He outranks you?"

"Sorry, sir but I am not under your command I am just here to make sure you get to the President office for the meeting." said the officer "Also I can't tell your rank."

"Our body paints clearly mark our rank to anyone with a single glance of the eye turret." countered the Palace Guard

"To you it does, but can you tell my rank?" countered the officer, as the Race looked him up and down. He wore a similar uniform to everyone else and the only thing that stood out was the different collar patches on the wrapping around his neck and different patches on his arms and what looked to be metal pins on the fabric as well. None of them could tell his rank or place in the command but none of them wanted to admit it. "I'll take that as a no, now let's get you to the President's office."

"Very well, but explain why those males and females are there?" inquired the Protocol Master

"They are here because it is a free world and they are able to speak their minds and yell at the top of their lungs about how much they hate what you are doing on Ovea or as you call it Vantic 5." explained the Tau'ri solider as the Race was lead to a waiting limonene. Thanks to the low ground clearance it was easy for the members of the Race to get in however what surprised them was the two military vehicles in front of them with Tau'ri manning machine guns on them. There was also multiple police cars in the front and in the back.

"Why are they upset with what we are doing? We are bringing culture to the Vantic people?" inquired the researcher Ttomalss who had joined the delegation as well.

"I'll let the President explain that." Said the Tau'ri guard as he opened the door and let the Race into the car. Once in the driver made sure everyone was buckled in and then they took off down the main boulevard. It was basically a straight path to the Presidential estate, with the only turn coming when they took the roundabout around the Tau'ri congress building in the center of the city. They rounded the building passing by a newly in place statue showing the upside-down V symbol of the Tau'ri with smaller statues of SG1 under the V. Then they turned back onto the main boulevard and headed toward the Presidential Estate.

The Estate sat on a patch of green land and was noticeably smaller than all the buildings around it. Trees shot up from the grass and it had a central building with two arching wings which shot out of the main part with colonnade on them. A dome graced the top of the building with a large window in the white marble walls. A drive way ran up to the building before looping around with a center fountain in the middle of the grassy area. Armed Tau'ri guards stood under a covered entrees, which had two large stone beasts gracing each side of the large wooden door.

The two guards stood at attention as the limo pulled up and the members of the Race got out and looked at the building. To them it was ugly and made no sense, the large windows and columns made no sense and the stone was also pointless as well. A male dressed in a strange wrapping of black with a white under wrapping stood before them.

"Welcome, I am Vice President Jonas Quinn." said the man through a translator, here there was no confusion. The race knew that this was likely someone of great importance, likely a second to this President Carter. The Race entered the building and entered the Presidential estate, the lofty ceilings seamed pointless to them, they also didn't like the carpet or the colors. To a human it spoke of elegance with fine hardwood floors with carpets and rugs which was from the best in the Tau'ri alliance. Fine paintings and pieces of art could be spotted along the halls.

Finally the Race reached a wooden door with two Tau'ri guards in similar black wrappings to the male who was their Vice President stood on either side of the door. One of them opened the door and allowed them to enter the room only to have the delegation of the Race stopped dead in their tracks.

Standing there talking with the President of the Tau'ri was a Vantic and he wasn't alone a handful of others stood along the back wall. It was Atvar who spoke up first as he recognized the Vantic male before him.

"You are the terrorist Unia." hissed Atvar as he opened his claws and moved forward. "How I wished for this day, the day I could say to you that you are under arrest."

"Well you may say those words Atvar but you have no power here." Said Prince Unia with distain in his voice.

"President Carter, we thank you for handing over this terrorist to us." Said Atvar as Prince Unia looked at this female who was in command of the Tau'ri.

"Whatever made you think we were going to hand him over to you?" inquired President Carter "Allies do not hand over the other to those who would do him harm."

"Allies?" inquired the Protocol Master "He is a terrorist."

"That is all a matter of perspective, see to you he is a terrorist but to his people he is a freedom fighter." explained President Carter "It is also how the Tau'ri public."

"He had blown up buildings and attacked males of the Race." Countered Atvar "He has stood in the way of spreading the light of culture to Vantic 5."

"Well that light was already there when you arrived to change it and the Tau'ri have recognized his world as a free and independent world and him as the head of government in exile." Said Carter as the lizards looked at her with moving eye turrets which at the moment where all locked on her. "Now we are here to discuss how to avoid any more bloodshed."

"Any more bloodshed?" inquired Atvar

"Yes, Tau'ri special forces are currently on the ground of Ovea." Stated Carter which caused all the members of the Race to freeze and look at her very still. "And believe me what they have reported back to high command and the images they took from the surface is not in your favor. We also have some recon teams on the other worlds of your Empire but we are currently focused on Ovea."

With that Carter pressed a button and a holographic display in the center of the table light up as images of the soldiers of the Race rounding up the Vantic children and attacking anyone who got in their way. The images of the camps appeared which included Vantic children being lead around at gunpoint. Carter like all the other humans in the room studied the visiting members of the Race seeing if they could read their expressions to find out what they were feeling. They failed, the Race didn't have eyebrows or a mobile mouth with lips on them to inform the Tau'ri what they were feeling. When the images stopped the entire room was quiet for a moment.

"What is your point?" inquired Ttomalss "I saw nothing that wrong with the images, granted the soldiers could have been gentler when it came to gathering the young vantic but other than that."

"Other than that!" yelled Prince Unia his anger boiling to the surface as he moved forward only to be stopped when Carter out stretched arm stopped him. "You take children from their families and…."

"Again, with the pointless bloodlines." Hissed Atvar before turning to look at the Tosetives. "I can understand these backward people not grasping the simple idea that birth doesn't matter but why should these offend you."

"Because like the Ovea people and most other people in the galaxy family is highly important to us." explained Carter causing the Race to look at her in amazement. "Taking children away from their parents for no reason is a crime that cause the blood of almost every Tau'ri to boil. People are willing to fight, to die and to kill to protect their children and seeing it happen to another people doesn't make the anger go away."

"Surely you are joking." said the Protocol Master "Outside of the line of the Emperor blood is not important in any way."

"To you maybe but not to the Tau'ri people or the Opochti people. The people are protesting you in the streets because of your actions." stated Carter "Now to I have asked you here so that we can work out a deal which will hopefully put all major issues to rest."

"There are no issues to put to rest." said the Protocol Master "We are the Race, we have conquered these worlds and they are growing under our light."

He paused for a moment to gather his thoughts and prepared to make a huge concession.

"In the light of the development that you have reached a level of science comparable to our own, we will allow that you have the right to keep Tosev 3 and all the worlds in the system." Said the Protocol Master as the members of the Race looked at the elder male. They all knew that this went against the orders given by the Emperor who had declared a soldier's time and the conquest of Tosev 3 and Vantic 5. "We will enter talks to settle a border with your Empire and then we will recall our forces from the Tosev system and you will recall your forces from Home and the other worlds of the Empire."

"This is a great concession does the Emperor Approve this?" inquired Atvar

"He has." confirmed the Protocol Master "We will have to find a new world to conquer, maybe the Yainia system, we can prepare a probe to study that system for a habitable world. So do we are done here."

"What if we offer you two worlds, will you leave Ovea peacefully then?" inquired Carter as one of the lizards gave a gesture she had seen them do multiple times but had no idea what it meant.

"No, space is big and we will not doom the Vantic people into darkness because of your backwards illogical concern about blood and birth outside of the line of the Emperor." said the Protocol Master "Vantic is and shall always be ours."

"I see." said Carter her eyes narrowing a bit "So I guess we are done here."

"Very good, shall we talk about the borders?" inquired the Protocol master

"No, I said we are done here. I never said we agreed to your terms." said Carter as the members of the Race was taken aback.

"We offer you a fair deal, we are the Race you can't stand against us." said the Protocol Master "Our Empire has lasted hundreds of thousands of years, you can't challenge us."

Carter grinned at threat, coming from this lizard.

"We shall see." Said Carter "We will have those who came from Home returned to Home and the rest returned to the Fleet."

"Very well." Said the delegation of the Race as they turned and left the room. Once outside and into the limo. They got into it and as it drove down the road, they began to speak. There was no Tau'ri in the vehicle beside the driver and he was behind a wall so there was no way the Tau'ri could hear them.

"So it will be war." Stated Atvar "I will have the ships with the most land cruisers and other ground weapons turned and head back to Home. They will be needed to protect it from any Tau'ri attack."

"Yes, if the Tau'ri rush they will likely attack us within the next 37 years. It will take time for them to build an army and weapons of war. We have the weapons built and while they can travel faster then light by the time our weapons arrive back on Home the Tau'ri should have just finished building their own weapons and training soldiers." said the Protocol Master, here once again the Race was putting the Tau'ri into a premade box because it was only mold they knew. They believed that there was no way that the Tau'ri would possibly have a standing army already ready to fight. Since Earth's orbit was just over two times longer than Home, 37 years to the Race would translate to around 17 years on Earth. That idea made the Tau'ri spies listening to them over the small hidden microphones and recorders laugh a bit before wondering if the Race was pulling their chain and giving them false information.

 **Inside the Presidential palace Carter turned to an aid.**

"Green light to begin the operation." stated Carter as the word was sent out from Earth to the waiting Akula class stealth warships in the Vantic system.

With the green light given the cloaked ship moved toward the planet and waiving in between the ships, shuttlecrafts and satellites of the Race moved into beaming range of the planet. Once in range a blinding light filled the small cargo/shuttlecraft hanger on the ship as the cargo was beamed away. Once away the captain made a turn and headed back into space and away from the planet. The cloak replaced the shield and having a ship ram into a cloak ship was the last thing the Tau'ri wanted.

Down on the surface, a Tau'ri special forces team had been spending a good amount of time digging a trench in the middle of the woods outside of the city of Nysha **.** The local freedom fighters watched in some confusion as the Tau'ri went to work, even though they didn't understand they helped using what looked to be wheel barrows only with longer handles to clear away the dirt dug by the Tau'ri. Once that was done the Tau'ri jumped out of the long narrow trench and waited.

"What is the point of all of this?" inquired a local freedom fighter as a blinding flash of light filled the air. When it faded a large metal, ring was before them. The trench held the bottom in place so it didn't fall over. "Ancestors protect me what is that?"

"That is a stargate." explained the nearest Tau'ri as the thing began to spin and light up at different points. When it was done a vortex of energy shot out before settling down like a pool of water. "And it is the key to liberating your world."

"How so?" inquired the fighter as suddenly more Tau'ri came out of the pool of water, following them came a vehicle with a heavy machine gun and a column of other vehicles. The fighters stood there stunned as the military fire power kept coming.

"Now, let's go get everything in place and start the liberation of your world." Said the Tau'ri

 **Well my new computer has arrived and while I am still organizing everything and clearing out old files into a portable hard drive I hope you find this chapter acceptable until next time when more action follows. Now until next time please keep reading, thanks Wilkins75.**


	16. Chapter 16

**Sorry for the delay, a mix of multiple Thanksgiving and family get togethers took time. Then coming down with the almost week-long flu bug which is running around my local area took me out of action for much longer then I planned. So sorry for the delay and I hope you all understand and can forgive me.**

 **Chapter 16 Culture Clash**

It was still dark outside but the warm glow from all the electric powered lights that took away the dark and replaced it with pure light. To the newly arriving Opochti people and most of all the young female Finia they couldn't believe everything they could see. The Tau'ri had brought flatbed trucks not much different then what the Race would use to move them around on their home world, however until the Race who seemed annoyed that they couldn't fit into the vehicles they designed the Tau'ri kept apologizing for not having time to adapt their vehicles to them. That amazed the Opochti people who had been talked down to by the Race about how they had to be the ones to throw away everything about their culture and take up the culture of the Empire.

"This is amazing." said Finia as she looked at the giant buildings which shot out from either side of the road. A train riding on a single line above the road glided past without a sound, through the large windows she could make out more Tau'ri riding the train however for the most part it appeared that the city was just waking up as the sun was rising in the distance. The trucks moved around a massive domed building before heading down a different road, here the buildings got smaller but still where taller than anything Finia had ever seen in her life. Then the trucks found themselves among strange looking trees, they where too green and they smelled weird.

In the distance they could see two large stone towers rising up over the top of the trees, only with closer inspection could she see that the towers where connected and had multiple pieces of colored glass in massive windows. Beside it was two more towers these thinner and shaped differently, she was about to ask what they where for to the driver when suddenly the sound of bells could be heard coming from the first two towers, other bells rang out from unseen locations and a strange call filled the air.

"What is that?" inquired a neighbor to the driver before she could ask.

"Ah, this is the single largest park we have within the Capital and the shrines and temples to all the different faiths we have are worshiped here, that is why you are hearing all the church bells on the hour." Explained the driver as he pointed toward the first two towers. "That is Our Lady of Mary the Roman Catholic Cathedral and beside that is the Silver Tau'ri Mosque, that is the call to prayer you are hearing along with the bells. We will be coming up on the Jewish Temple and the Buddhist Temple in a couple of moments if you want me to point them out as well?"

"Thank you." Said Finia as she spun her head around taking in all the strange sights. Finally, they reached a large building which looked almost like a box with a domed top.

"Well we are here, Capital City Stadium and temporary emergency refugee housing." said the driver as the truck along with the others came to a stop and teams of Tau'ri moved to help them off the trucks. They moved past glass doors which opened automatically into a large lobby which was sleek and modern looking with shinning steal and white stone.

"Come this way." Said a Tau'ri with a load speaker as the refugees where guided toward different stations where more Tau'ri waited to give them aid in the form of information about where to go to get food, medical attention and a place to clean up. Here like everywhere else the Tau'ri they ran into went over and beyond anything the Race would have ever attempted to accommodate the Opochti people. They apologized that they didn't have private rooms but instead had a large open area in the center of what looked to be a sports stadium which was covered with portable mats which was far more conformable then then sleeping beds the refugee farmers and shop owners where used to. Children found the toys that the Tau'ri had set out for them, mostly balls and blocks but for children who had been saved from being taken away from their parents' toys of any kind was welcomed.

Finia moved away from the toys and instead enjoyed a good and filling meal, the Tau'ri allowed her and every other guest as much food as they would want. It was quickly found that something called cream chicken was a favorite.

"Blessing be on your ancestors for your kindness." said Finia's mother to the Tau'ri giving out the food.

"It was my pleasure and may Allah, bless and keep you safe." said the Tau'ri neither of them truly understanding the other fully but knowing each was thanking the other.

 **Only a few Kilometers away Prince Unia walked into a room that few none Tau'ri had ever entered, with the only two notable exceptions being Teal'c and Bra'tak the Tau'ri War Room under the military headquarters.** The state of the art headquarters was the military command and control for the Tau'ri military forces within the Sol System which included Earth, Mars and Venus three of the five currently major settled planets. The war room had a direct link to the galactic wide command and control center located outside of Istanbul and had links to other command centers spread out across Tau'ri space. The man and women who monitored the computers where the direct link between the Tau'ri high command and the different branches of the military.

Prince Unia looked at the holographic displays which the Tau'ri used to display information, he had seen the Race use similar technology but the Tau'ri version seamed to give clearer images and seamed to be smaller as well. Along with all the displays and advance technology was something which could have come out of his own war room in the palace that the Race now occupied as their headquarters on Opochti. A large wall was covered with old fashion maps, they showed locations he had never seen before but seeing something that was so filmier eased him as he walked up to a table where a shorter than normal Tau'ri stood with other Tau'ri flanking him. The Tau'ri snapped to attention and raised one of their hands to the hairy tuffs of fur above their eyes in what he assumed was a salute.

"Madam President." said the Tau'ri in the middle, before turning to Prince Unia and giving a salute as well. "Prince Unia, I am General Leong and with any luck we have your planet liberated within the next 3 days."

"That fast?" inquired Prince Unia

"Well I must admit I used your days not ours, it will take four of our days your days are longer." Admitted the General "This will actually help us in the coming operations we have planned, per your approval."

"My approval." Inquired Prince Unia

"Yes, you are our ally and this is your world we will not do anything that you don't want us to do." Stated General Loeng as Prince Unia turned to President Carter who nodded her head. All the Tau'ri knew that was only semi true, they wouldn't put their own soldiers in too much risk. There would be no suicidal attacks unless it was absolutely needed.

"I thank you, for entrusting me with this heroic task I hope that my ancestors will give me wisdom to see what needs to be done." said Prince Unia "My people will never forget everything you do for our freedom and we will not let you carry this burden alone and we will put our own lives at risk before yours."

"Thank you." Said General Loeng "Because our current plan involves the sacrifice of one of your cities."

That caused Prince Unia to snap his head toward the Tau'ri general before tilting it slightly to one side as he raised his hands up to his chest, to the Tau'ri it reminded them of photos of a mantis about to attack. Even Carter looked at General Loeng with confusion and concern.

"We need to lure out the military forces of the Race into a position where we can destroy them before we move on the capital here." said General Leong as she pointed at Nysha. "At the moment our best launching point is this wood and from there we can drive on the Capital and take it. The problem is that there is a risk that the Race can move their armor up into a blocking position before we can break into the Capital. While it wouldn't stop our advance, it would slow it down and cost unneeded lives to be lost."

"So you need to bring them out and to do that you give them a target." Stated Prince Unia "And that is our of our cities, Likna if I am not mistaken."

"You are not." Said General Leong hiding the smile, he may lack the technology, but he knew warfare. "Our plan to evacuate the civilians of Likna and then hit the education prison camp here. We will lure the Race into Likna and then we fight them. Once the Race arrives they will expect the normal amount of resistance, but we will give them more than they ever believed possible. Once they are fully engaged in a fight our forces in the forest will strike at them from behind and drive for the Capital. At the same time the 7th fleet will break from their current positions over Home and arrive at your world. With them in orbit they will carry out attacks across Ovea and bring the forces of the Race under control within a day to a day and a half."

"Then we will move on to a diplomatic solution with the Emperor of the Race but no matter what happens the Race will be gone from your world." Said President Carter

"That is the fondest dream of my people, tell me more about how we will do it." Said Prince Unia "How will we move everything into place?"

"It is time to tell to tell you about the Stargate." Said Carter

 **The sound of the ringing cell phone on the night stand caused Acacia Davas to lift her head of her pillow and to look around the room.** Overall it was a simple enough hotel room, with a large single bed in the center of the room with one of those flat screen TV which the Tau'ri used. Even with the simple it was elegant with a couch in one corner by the window and a wooden headboard behind them with a carved scene on animals. Robert's hand shot out and turned off the alarm.

"Is it morning already?" inquired Robert with a laugh. Officially this was his room and her and her best friend Medea's room was next door, unofficially that was just a cover and everyone knew it.

"Yes." said Acacia as she leaned over him and gave her boyfriend a kiss which he returned and ran his hand through her hair. It was about to turn into something more when the second alarm went off causing the two of them to break apart in disappointment.

"I better get ready, your family and I are going out shopping while you enjoy your little game." said Acacia with a slight laugh.

"It isn't often that I get to watch the OSU Penn State game with my dad and grandpa." Said Robert "Also the winner takes the Big 10 East and with that a spot in the Championship game, win that and they have a reserved spot in the 8 team playoffs."

"And your brother in law." Added Acacia not really caring about the other part.

"Well he went to Penn State so we get to make fun of him." Stated Robert with a laugh before giving her another kiss as she got off the bed and headed toward the shower to get ready for the day as the sun began to rise over Valhalla.

Within an hour Acacia was with her best friend Medea and the rest of the women of the Lefeld family, the guys had headed toward something called the ESPN sports center at the massive open-air shopping center full of different shops and dinning options. The center was located on the lake front and had parts of it which shot out over the water on a wooden pier.

"So many shops so little time." Laughed Medea as she went to town getting things that would have been impossible to get in the colonies. Acacia as more of a careful shopper then her friend even so she found more then a few things she liked. Things that would have been rare outside of Aquaria in the Colonies was common here. More Tau'ri shops and business and all of them was more then happy to be open, none of them had protestors which happened to some Colonial business selling Tau'ri items back home.

"So once they solve your whole school issue when are you going to go start shopping for a white dress?" asked Robert's youngest sister Kim as Acacia tilted her head slightly as her long red hair got in her way. A confused look on her face only confused Kim who pointed toward a nearby store where multiple different statues stood in white wedding dresses.

"Ah…I see." said Acacia with a slight laugh. "Sorry different traditions, see in the colonies you wear white when at your funeral not at a wedding. Pure soul going up to meet the Lords of Kobol and all in the after life, for a moment I thought you asked when I was planning to die."

"Oh…" said Kim "Sorry I didn't mean that."

"No problem." said Acacia as she waved off the thing as she eyed the dress in the window. "In the colonies the bride tends to wear assorted colors depending on the Lords of Kobol which rule the world they are from, chrisom red for Tauron, Caprica Blue for Caprica and Zeus Gold for Sagittarian and so on."

"And Libran?" inquired Grandma Lefeld who had been listening in to the conversation. Acacia actually blinked, she hadn't expected the older woman to remember that she was from Libran.

"Silver." answered Acacia as she turned the corner and saw the back side of the store only to see more statues in the window only these whore multiple colored dresses, the colors of the 12 colonies of Kobol. She saw a pair of women about her age looking at the dress in the window, it was a traditional Aquaria style dress which was well known across the colonies.

"I really like the look of that one, but not in that blue maybe in that gold there." Said the woman as she pointed to a dress in the Sagittarian Bridal Gold. Having a Aquaria style dress in Zeus Gold would have caused a firestorm among some of the more religious on Sagittarian but here it didn't matter at all. She then turned her attention to something she read before she left the colonies that the number of people choosing Tau'ri style clothing was growing rapidly.

Another sigh of the cross-culture exchange of between the 12 colonies and the Tau'ri when they meet up with the guys at the ESPN center, to her amazement mix in with all the TV screens showing the multiple Tau'ri Football and soccer games was actually some pyramid game. At first she thought it was a game out of the colonies but she didn't recognize the uniforms and that they wore helmets. Then she saw the score and the names of the teams.

"USC and UCLA?" inquired Medea who also noticed the game.

"Two colleges on Earth." Explain Robert's grandfather who was focused on the football game.

"Well I guess cultural exchange is a two-way street." said Acacia as she sat down beside Robert and watched the game without fully understanding it, while they waited for food.

 **On board the Missouri Admiral Hackett had more things to worry about then culture extend he was clashing with the culture of the Race as he looked at the message which had be sent up to the 7** **th** **fleet from the Imperial Palace of the Race on Home**. Hackett glared at the message with a look of pure annoyance before handing it off to the Captain of the Missouri. She quickly scanned the message before looking at the Admiral in charge of the fleet.

"Are they joking?" inquired the Captain

"No it doesn't appear to be. It appears that they expect us to sit on our hands for months while they research how to carry out an audience between two independent powers." said Hackett

"They don't have a process for an audience already in place?" inquired the Captain as Hackett shook his head.

"No, the method they currently have in place is for a subject to go before this Emperor of theirs and that has processes I will never agree to in any way." stated Hackett with firmness in his voice as he remembered reading the process involved in an Imperial audience. If it was something simple like a bow or saying some special words that would have been acceptable but in this case, it involved all that and having special body paint put on him. He or any other member of the Tau'ri which would speak to the Emperor if they followed the method currently in place would have to go nude and that was unacceptable on multiple fronts and that was before getting to the fact they would have to admit they served the Emperor which was out of the question. "We need to solve this issue as soon as possible hopefully without setting off a war, if we don't then General Leong will start her operation and from then it will be too late."

"Well, sir it would be a short war even if we do have one." countered the Captain as Hackett glared at her. "But I agree we could do better without a war. The Race just doesn't seem to understand the situation that they are in and that we are on a time schedule, maybe if a war wasn't brewing near Lanagara the situation could wait a few months but not with a real war on the horizon."

"No, we wouldn't have months to wait even if the rest of the galaxy was at peace." countered Hackett with a shake of his head which caused the Captain to raise an eyebrow. "The Race's reeducation camps on Ovea, we can't allow those to remain open for months while we talk everything out."

"Sorry, sir I had forgotten about those." admitted the Captain "I see the images and it is horrible but on some levels, I can't get myself as worked up about them because they are lizards doing it to bugs."

"I understand that." admitted Hackett, it was human nature after all. "We must remember they are living beings just as if they were human, doesn't matter if they are aliens of any kind that is wrong."

"I know sir and I agree with you, I am just admitting that it is kind of hard for me to get as worked up about them as I would if they were more human looking." stated the Captain

"And to the Race we are sword swinging savages." countered Hackett "That is from their actual report about of humanity from their probe, "big ugly sword swinging savages with hair tuffs of fur on their heads." Until they found out that that we are very different."

"Well that makes more sense then." said the Captain as Hackett raised an eyebrow. "Sir we have gotten multiple intercepts that call us sword swinging savages, I wasn't sure why they kept using that."

"Well the more you know and knowing if half the battle." said Hackett with a internal laugh, he remembered that old GI Joe Cartoon from his days in Canada. "But how do we get the race to know that we will not more at the snail rate they are used too."

"Outside of blasting away their ships and capturing or killing their emperor nothing that I can see." admitted the Captain

"No, the more I have studied the Race's political system the more I know we can't kill or even capture the Emperor. Not unless we want to destroy the Race's political structure as a whole." Stated Hackett as he placed his hand behind his back. "See, the Emperor isn't a figure head or even just a spiritual leader, he is the leader in all extent a total. A complete and total unquestioned ruler, there are ministers under him but they only cover certain fields, there is no Vice President or someone who takes over if the Emperor is killed or captured. No if an Emperor dies young then his son is named Emperor and if he is too young to rule, they just follow the plans current 5 or 10-year plans currently in place until he is old enough."

"Not a real flexible system or one that can adapt to change in any tangible way." said the Captain "So what will happen if we capture or kill the Emperor?"

"Basically, they have no plans for that, if we take their current Emperor and any young he has then they have no government and we have no one to make a deal with to end any war." stated Hackett "No, if we take the Emperor we are going to break the whole Empire once and for all and we have no orders for that. Until I get some we will try our best to scare them to the table."

"Maybe the return of their delegation from Earth will inform them that they are outclassed in every way." Stated the Captain as Hackett shook his head.

"No, intelligence reports that they think war between us is all but started." Stated Hackett "The thing is they believe we don't have a standing army and that it will take 37 of their years which is about 17 of ours to prepare an defense and to train soldiers."

The Captain shook her head as she looked at the planet through the display screen, it showed a world of browns, golds with only a little amount of blue and green.

"If any of the other powers had found them they would have been destroyed within hours." Stated the Captain "We are giving them too much time in my view."

"Maybe but time is running out for them, that is for sure." said Hackett as he noticed an alert from one of the crew pits. A Condor had had entered the system and was on route to head back to the colonies, the condor checked in and headed toward the Race's capital where they unload the delegation before returning to the Missouri.

 **The civilian transport took off and headed off the colony world of Virgon for the journey to Libra and after a short lay over at Queens City space port it would head to Aquaria.** The ship was one of the new one built after the war and had small private booths for first class each containing four seats. In one of those booths sat Captain Lee Adama and former Colonial Viper pilot Kara Thrace.

"This is fraken shit we have to travel to Libra to go to Aquaria." Stated Kara with distain in her voice. "All because the Tau'ri will not let our own ships land on our own world."

"They have good reasons to do it that way." Said Lee as Kara looked at him, she had been around him long enough to know by the look on his face that he was mentally kicking himself at the moment.

"You told me something you shouldn't have did you?" inquired Kara as Lee let out a sigh.

"Yes, the Tau'ri prevented a terrorist attack by Sagittarians which involved ramming a ship into one of the Tau'ri ships." Stated Lee

"I know Sagittarians are generally stupid, but everyone knows that the Tau'ri ships have shields." Countered Kara as Lee nodded his head.

"They planned to make it look like the Tau'ri rammed them and touch off a larger rebellion." explained Lee

"How come I never heard about it, it wasn't in the news I would have remembered that." stated Kara as she remembered the look Lee had on his face. "It was never released to the public was it?"

"No, officially we don't know about it either." admitted Lee as he took a deep breath. "What I am going to tell you can't be shared with anyone."

"Alright." Said Kara

"You know that we have teams working with the Tau'ri in anti-terror on Sagittarian and to a lesser extent on Gememon." stated Lee as Kara nodded her head, that information was well known and was part of the treaty which ended the war. "Well the Tau'ri have black ops teams that do raids without us officially knowing about it before hand and maybe while we are not as sure afterwards either."

"The Tau'ri carry out raids behind our backs, the cocky frakers." Growled Kara "And the government allows them to do that on two of our worlds."

"It isn't just on Sagittarian and Gememon. They broke up an assassination attempt on President Roslin on Caprica only a few weeks ago." added Lee as he saw the sick look on Kara's face. "And that was one they told us about, High Command. We don't know how many Tau'ri special forces teams have raided terrorist cells across the colonies. From what we have been able to gather they tend to cover their tracks very well."

"And our government is allowing them to do that?" growled Kara "Why are we even putting up a show to be free government power. The Tau'ri are our overlords."

"Maybe, but we aren't in a position to really do anything." Said Lee as took a breath and decided to walk off the cliff even worse than he had already done so. "Without the Tau'ri government funding us and their businesses investing in us, our government would fall and our economy would be in the gutter. Kara the Tau'ri basically fund our colonies at the moment and that isn't going to change any time soon we took a worse beating then most know from the war."

Kara blinked as she looked at him with a blank look as she tried to process the information.

"I knew it was bad but are you telling me that the Tau'ri have us that much under their thumb?" inquired Kara

"Yes, don't get me wrong the government is still taking in Tax money but we spent a lot of money on the war with a promise of land on Kobol as payment." Said Lee "That land and all the mineral rights we sold to our companies never came to be and that caused a lot of them to fail and the Tau'ri swooped down on it. We haven't announced it but just over half of the major companies that existed before the war are now under Tau'ri control."

"Why didn't you use Aquaria, the Tau'ri made it livable and you sold off the land to pay for funding for benefits for the soldiers, you could sell the mineral rights to the land to companies to pay them off?" inquired Kara

"It wasn't enough, Aquaria may have been an ice ball of a world but it had been minded in the past and the resources there wasn't enough to pay for everything and the Tau'ri took some of the land for themselves, not a lot but they did take away some land we could have sold. Also the Tau'ri reserved some land for religious refugees from other places in the colonies, free housing and the like." Explained Lee with a shake of his head. "Kara, the Tau'ri won the war and because of that they are in the process of assimilating us into their civilization, not the other way around like so many of our people believed we would do when we first met them. There are active talks of dumping the our cubit and going over to the Tau'ri dollar as our official currency and well you know that we did a population census after the war correct?"

"Sure, I had to do it what about it?" inquired Kara

"Remember where they asked what religion you where?" inquired Lee as Kara nodded. "It hasn't been released but almost 15% of people answered other and another 7% said they don't believe in religion anymore."

"And that is a surprise? We have a lot of people who faked being religious." Said Kara

"On Sagittarian?" countered Lee as Kara blinked "That was Sagittarian's numbers not the colonies as a whole and since we can't enforce the religious laws on Sagittarians and Gememons anymore more and more of their people are opening turning against faith the lords of Kobol or at least not being as firm in their beliefs."

"Sagittarian is the heart of the faith." said Kara as a chill went down her spine. Sagittarian was full of religious nut cases and they along with Gememon had enforced harsh religious laws on their people. The other colonies had let them get away with it because they only enforced it on their own people and it avoided years of terrorism, the Tau'ri had broken that accord and now those who had been bound to follow the harsh rules of the faith where free and breaking away.

"And the number 1 consumer of Tau'ri media according to our intelligence department." Added Lee "They don't want to admit it and they are fighting it to but they are being converted to the Tau'ri line of thinking."

"So they are conquering us." Said Kara "Slowly and more stealthy but they are, cleaver fuckers. In a generation or two everyone might be swearing to that Tau'ri flag instead of the Colonial one."

"I see someone has been watching Tau'ri media as well." Said Lee as Kara realized what she had said.

"Frak." Cursed the former Viper pilot.

 **The Protocol Master along with the head of the Palace guards entered the palace through a side entree and headed straight toward the private chamber of Emperor Risson.** They found Emperor Risson sitting behind a large ancient wooden desk which predated the actual unification of Home. Emperor Risson turned both eye turrets toward two of his highest officials. The officials took up the position of respect reserved only for the Emperor who told them to rise with a wave of his hand.

"So the Tau'ri can travel faster then light." said Emperor Risson "I feared so."

"Truth, your majesty and they have already reached Vantic 5 and claim to have ships over every world in the Empire." Said the Protocol Master

"How disappointing, are they reasonable?" inquired Risson

"I fear not your majesty they follow the same foolish belief as the Vantic with family united based on blood lines and they do not have an emperor instead a female who holds an office called the President picked by snout counting." stated the Palace Guard "Fleet Lord Atvar has informed us as well that the Tau'ri defense stations have energy based weapons which would tear apart our ships like claws into fresh meat."

"Energy based weapons, that is concerning luckily it is only on their defense stations not the ships overhead." said Risson "What demands are they giving?"

"They want us to give up Vantic 5 and that is something we can not do, your grace." said the Protocol Master "Our population is too great and not having Tosev 3 will already cause us problems but that can't be avoided."

"Your majesty we believe war is likely." Said the Palace Guard

"I feared that as well." Stated Risson "Maybe when I have an audience with this Admiral Hackett we can come to an accord, that will be your task Protocol Master I need the research done in how to carry out an audience with an independent power."

"I shall start at once your majesty." Stated the Protocol master

"And you will look into the training and arming of the palace guards, we must be prepared for anything now." stated Risson

"It shall be done, your majesty." Said the Palace Guard

"I want this done fast, two weeks and I expect to see the difference." Stated Risson as the Palace guard nodded his head, that was unbelievably fast but it would be done.

 **Darkness was still hours away in the city of Likna on Ovea or as the race called it Vantic 5, the city which was a hotbed of resistance activity was still almost totally populated by the local people.** Even so it like every other city on the planet had a police force made totally out of the males and females of the Race. The Race had taken over the local prison when they took the city in their conquest and still used as the current police station. It along with a shrine to the spirits of the Emperor's past which had replaced a temple to the ancestors sat on opposite sides of the open air market and where the only two buildings to currently have electrical power, indoor running water and phone lines.

"I can't wait until they remove all these buildings and replace them with true buildings." Said one of military police which controlled the town. Since this was still a Vantic town, military police instead of regular police patrolled the streets and protected the shrine to spirits of Emperors' past. They had carved out a part of the open-air market for a vehicle park and had parked two infantry carriers and some trucks along with their personal vehicles there. None of the locals came within a 100 yards of the police station or the vehicle park for fear of bringing the Race down upon them.

"Truth." said another MP as he turned an eye turret to where a local was selling some kind of meat in the market. "Totally unsanitary to have a market like that for food, it needs to be processed and checked. I can't wait until they bulldoze everything here and build a proper city with super markets and true apartment buildings."

"Truth." said the first MP as he noticed that more of the locals where backing away from the building even more then normal. "Something is wrong."

"I don't see anything." Countered the second MP as checked his watch. "Why haven't we heard from any of the others on patrol?"

"I don't know." Said the first MP as he hit his radio. "Superior sir, something is going on. We haven't heard from any of the other patrols."

"We haven't gotten any distress calls and no reports of gunfire from our microphones." said the operator within the building behind him.

"They could have been ambushed." countered the first MP

"We sent them out in squads of six males? Do you think these crawlers can take down six males of the race without making a noise? And there are currently six squads out there that is 36 males all of them veterans of combat, it is impossible."

"Yes, sir." Confirmed the first MP as he lowered his head.

Only a few streets away the bodies of six males of the race had been dragged into house of a freedom fighter to conceal the bodies. A couple of females came out with buckets of water to wash away the blood as a Tau'ri commando team covered the road.

"Mark off one more patrol." said the commander as he checked his silenced weapon, with that along with the computer hack into the Race's computer network to disable the gun fire microphones the Tau'ri had begun the operation to clear out the city of Likna from the Race.

"This is team 4 we have control over the road in and out of the city." Said another voice over the radio

"Team 5, we have control over the old gatehouse and have cut all lines of communication, the city is isolated." Said another team.

"Then we have the green light." Said the commander as one of the strangest creatures any of the Tau'ri had ever seen came to a stop beside them. It looked somewhat like a horse with three horns, two like a long horn cattle and the last like a rhino's. On top of that it had a hardened grayish green skin and walked on six legs. It pulled a large covered cart which looked more in place on the Oregon trail then in a city market as male Opochti in the dress of a farmer walked beside it holding the reigns.

"Alright." said the Tau'ri commander as they got into the back of the cart and readied their weapons. Once everything was in place the cart took off down the road and turned a corner into the market place. They moved through the market place people stepping aside to allow the cart through.

"Alright you are nearing the target, taking out roof gunner." said one of the snipers as he aimed sniper rifle at the guard standing post beside a machine gun on the roof of the building. The roof was too narrow and slopped wrong for a team to be dropped in from the air but it had just enough room for a machine gun nest. He took careful aim and let out a breath as he pulled the trigger, the bullet left the barrel and flew straight and true hitting the lizard in the unarmored chest with the exit wound exploding out the back. The lizard dropped without even alerting the two other guards standing on the ground floor only 20 ft away from him. Those guards where too focused on the cart which was coming up to them.

"Stop." said one of them as he moved forward. "Must check for contraband."

"Yes, superior sir." Said the resistance fighter in farmers clothing as one of the males moved around to the back of the cart while the other stayed more to the front by the massive beast. The male was reaching for the handle to drop the thin wooden ramp which would give him access to covered cart when three rounds from a silenced assault rifle ripped through the thin wood and into him. He stumbled backwards grabbing his chest as his comrade turned an eye turret to him only to have the second one snap to him as well in confusion. His teammate was just raising his rifle when a his chest exploded with rounds going through his body armor and sending him to the ground in a pool of his blood just like he was in.

He couldn't talk, the pain was strangely distance as he turned to look at the cart, strange creatures dressed in a camo pattern and wearing wrappings he had never seen had jumped off the cart and was running toward the door to the police station. They cut through the razor wire protecting it with some tool he couldn't see, they all had weapons in their hands. They had come to murder him and his squad mates, his friends. He couldn't allow that as he gathered what strength he had left he lifted his rifle up and took aim. He never heard the round that came at him from one of the creatures as his head exploded and he went to the afterlife.

The suppressors caused the members of the race inside the building not to notice that they where under attack, outside however the people in the market noticed full well that the gunfire. Some just started to run away, while others turned toward the source to see the resistance fighter pretending to be a farmer pull out a long slightly curved sword from a hiding spot on the cart. He spun it in the air so that everyone could see that he was a member of the royal guard.

"Liberation is at hand, we have allies." said the Guard "Stay, watch and observe!"

The Tau'ri at the door lined up, the door was new and made of what looked to be a kind of frosted glass. The Tau'ri in the front tested the door and found that it opened slightly and checking his life sign detector saw that three members of the Race was within 10 feet of the entrees with an additional half dozen spread out within the building. This was made possible because of the duel heart system of the local Opochti people which would appear different to the Tau'ri system.

"Ready." said the first Tau'ri as the man behind him pulled the pin on a flashbang but held it in place. Then with one quick movement the lead man opened the door as the second threw in the flashbang into the lobby.

In the lobby two military police officers stood on guard duty while a female receptionist sat behind a desk answering calls and helping anyone who came into the building. They all turned an eye turret toward the opening door when the hissing sound of an open-door sensor alerted them that someone was coming in.

They watched in amazement as a tube about the size of a small pipe came flying into the room, a level of some kind came flying off the top of the pipe. If flew into the center of the room before exploding with a blinding flash of light and a deafening blast sound.

"Go!" yelled the Tau'ri team as they followed the flashbang in half a second after the blinding flash. The members of the race where stumbling around, the two guards had weapons in their hands while trying to rub their eyes with a free hand. Bursts of fire from the Tau'ri dropped both of them before their vision cleared. The receptionist got a round in the head as the Tau'ri cleared the lobby and moved into the heart of the building.

There was no way to hide the sound of the flashbang as the other males and females of the race in the building looked up from what they where doing with alarm. The males mostly where armed and even the females who where regular police officers carried weapons. The bulk of them where located on the second level in a room filled with cubical and desks. They where just heading toward the door when it flew open and grenade flew into the room. Before they could do more then look at it, it exploded outwards in a blinding flash of light and sent razor sharp pieced of metal flying in all directions. Two nearby MPs went down as the door flew open, and figures dressed like nothing they had ever seen before entered the room. With bursts of fire they began to clear the room and leaving no one alive they moved onto the next room and cleared it out as well.

It was a perfect straight forward operation for the Tau'ri special forces, it was easy in all ways. The race had never expected an attack to get past the lobby and had therefore not planned on how to deal with it. They had been in the building for only a few minutes when they reached the final room, which was in fact the armory. The Race had put in a reinforced metal door to prevent their weapons from falling into the hands of the locals.

"Looks like we have three members of the Race sealed inside." said the Tau'ri point man as he studied the door, it would have stopped an attacker with a sword or other hand tools but not him. Then without a word he placed an explosive charge on the door and backed away. Once a safe distance he swiped his finger over the touch screen computer on his wrist. That caused the charge to go off and send the door flying in. The Tau'ri stormed in to find that the large metal door had done their work for them for the most part. The door had crushed two of the lizards flat out and the other had been hit in the head by it and was lying on the ground his breathing shallow and rapid. His eyes seamed unable to focus on anything and his brain was clearly visible through a massive hole in his skull.

"End him." said their commander as one of the Tau'ri pulled a pistol and pulled the trigger ending the doom lizard.

"Clear." answered the Tau'ri who had pulled the trigger as he put his weapon away.

"Building is secured." said the Tau'ri commander as they exited the building only to find a massive crowed gathered outside. They looked at the Tau'ri with confusion which only grew as one of their numbers took off their helmet allowing the locals to see his face.

"Citizens of Likna it is time to reclaim our world and with the help of our new allies, the Tau'ri we will defeat the Race." said the Resistance fighter as the Tau'ri pulled out a small crystal and placed it on the ground. The ground shook a little before a ball of energy shot down into the ground at a 30 degree angle. It didn't come to a stop instead it ran right into another tunnel which was already below and waiting for the top to open and finish the tunnel.

"Everything good down there!" yelled the commander down the Tok'ra tunnel

"Yes." said a voice back as a heavy duty Tau'ri truck moved up the tunnel which ran from the city all the way back to the woods where the stargate was located. The locals looked on in amazement as what looked to them to be to them a Land cruiser of the Race but was in fact a self-propelled gun came up after the truck. Next came more heavy weapons including more self-propelled guns and towed guns, heavy trucks carrying more Tau'ri soldiers and most importantly more local freedom fighters including Prince Unia.

Prince Unia stood ontop the front slopping armored plate of one of the Tau'ri self-propelled guns with the banners of his kingdom flapping behind him along with the blue and silver Tau'ri flag. All the eyes of the locals where on him as he used a small megaphone and speakers attached to Tau'ri vehicles so everyone could hear him speak.

"People of Likna, we are going to reclaim our world and we will kick those scaly covered monsters off our world once and for all." Proclaimed Prince Unia as he raised the ceremonial sword which had been in his family for generations. Generations in which this city had always been under the rule of his family. "Who is with us!"

Almost as one the crowd raised both their hands over their heads and started making a clicking sound in approval.

"I guess we are about to have some fun." Said Colonel Drugov as the Spetsnaz solider and only Tau'ri that the colonials ever had a prison of war as he stood beside a truck loaded with AK style weapons and behind it was another truck with RPGs and after that truck another truck full of weapons. The weapons would flow into the city and while some of the civilians would fight the rest would help prepare the city for the battle before going down the tunnel which would take them back to the main Tau'ri base camp and the stargate.

"Sir, we better go check out those trucks it will be dark in a few hours." said a private as Drugov let out a sigh as he looked at the Trucks that the race used. They where about the size of their Tau'ri counterparts but the compartment looked tinny. "They will be a pain to drive."

"They will but that is key to getting this done right." said Drugov as he and other Tau'ri special forces headed toward the trucks while others started handing out weapons. Still others spread out across the city and secure it all the while beginning to set up the little surprises that all needed to be in place by sundown. It was going to be a busy few hours for the Opochti people and their allies the Tau'ri.

 **Well I hope you liked this chapter, I thank you all for dealing with the longer then normal wait but the flu was something I hadn't planned on. Now until next time please keep reading. Thanks Wilkins75.**


	17. Chapter 17

**Chapter 17 Raid In Progress**

Darkness had fallen over the land as a convoy of trucks moved out from Likna and linked up with another convoy of trucks coming out of a large woods near a highway leading to the Race's Capital at Nysha. The convoys merged into a single column with their lights on as they headed out onto a highway designed by the race. The Highway was very similar to highways across every Tau'ri world with the only difference being that three lanes was the most common type instead of two.

For the Tau'ri this was a bold plan that counted on the simple fact that people and hopefully lizards tended to not pay attention to details and saw only what they expected to see. The first and last vehicle were in fact Race transport trucks taken from the parking lot of Likna police station. The stolen trucks even had police markings however the bulk of the trucks where Tau'ri Camel transport trucks. With those trucks in the lead and with the darkness of night it was believed that any members of the race passing by would assume that it was a convoy of Race trucks. It helped that since the Opochti people couldn't fit in the vehicles designed by the Race and therefor the Race were the only people on the planet who could drive. The ploy was actually straight out of WW2 where first the Nazi's and then the Soviet Red Army snuck whole tank columns past enemies line in the night by having a captured enemy tank in the lead and rear to fool foot soldiers.

Mixed in with the heavy trucks where other vehicles which where unlike anything the race currently had on the road, there was a handful of Puma recon vehicles armed with heavy machine guns and mini guns and six wheeled Cougar APCs. There was also two of the new Alligator light recon armor, the eight-wheeled light tank was similar to the LAV-25 which was used by the Canadian Army and American Marine force until they where merged into the entire Tau'ri military. With it's mini rail gun autocannon it could take on much larger targets with ease and would be the fist in this attack.

In each vehicle where multiple Tau'ri special forces members along with Opochti freedom fighters. All the Tau'ri where wearing the most advanced power armor and armed with suppressed weapons, while the Opochti freedom fighters wore their traditional padded armor which would be good against swords and arrows but was next to useless against bullets. The Tau'ri had offered body armor however an issue had arisen because design of the armor. The shoulders of the Opochti where too small for the body armor straps and the placement of the holes for the arms was all wrong. In the end Tau'ri body armor could be worn by their Opochti allies, they did however take the belts which held multiple magazines for the AKM assault rifles which they could use. In the limited training they had one how to use their new weapons showed the Tau'ri that because of their four legs they had a very stable base that helped with aiming their rifles.

Multiple cars drove past them and none of the members of the race behind the wheel even noticed the strange trucks, the darkness along with the simple fact that it wasn't something they ever thought of seeing allowed them to mass unnoticed in the open. They followed the highway, thanks to some pre-mission planning resistance fighters had gone out and destroyed the street lights. The race didn't use overhanging street lights using strong lights along the side of the road at ground level. That made it ever so much easier for the fighters to destroy and for sure the Race drivers noticed that more then they noticed the Tau'ri armor rolling past them.

The convoy turned off an exit and headed through a small roadside town which had gone up by the Race after conquest. All the buildings where cube shaped or the same types of rectangles, there was nothing that really made them stand out. All the buildings looked the same, some did have different plants outside but that was about the full extent of the differences between the buildings.

"Not much of a night life." noted one of the Tau'ri drivers as he looked at the few lizards walking through the streets. Most traveled in groups of threes and fours and looked like groups of friends out and there were no signs of couples out on a date. They passed by a restaurant and a gas station, well a hydrogen station since they used hydrogen to power their vehicles unlike the Tau'ri who used Nahquada based fuel-cell and power cores for their vehicles. For the most part everything was quiet as they headed out of the city and headed toward the reeducation camp.

The camp had a wall which stood 14 feet tall and made of reinforced concrete with strips of razor sharp metal around the top instead of barb wire. Then there was a second and smaller barrier made out of just the metal razor wire with a path large enough for patrolling males of the race to walk around. There were towers in each of the four corners but none by the main gate itself. The main gate was in fact just a large roll away metal gate similar to what could be found around a gated housing center. Standing at the gate where four Race guards who looked nothing but board. They turned their attention toward the coming convoy but seeing the first vehicle was one of their trucks they didn't get alarmed in any way.

"There is a second drop off tonight?" inquired the younger male as the convoy began to slow down.

"Not according to the schedule, I got." Said the higher-ranking male, "By the emperor if they messed up the schedule again, I will kick someone in the tail stump for it.

"Will it do any good sir, some officer in scheduling has head up his own…well you know." Said one of the males as he lifted a small flask like item from a belt around his waist.

"I should report you for that but your right." admitted the higher ranking male as they let the first truck come all the up to them past the razor wire and right up to the gate. That is when they noticed for the first time that the windows where tinted to such they couldn't see into the cab.

"Superior sir, something is wrong." Said the younger male but he never had a chance as all four males of the race dropped within seconds of each other.

"Good shooting." Said the Tau'ri driver in the first vehicle over the radio to the sniper teams which had dropped all four males of the race. Out of the back of his truck came eight Tau'ri special forces jumped out of the truck, behind his truck more Tau'ri jumped up and formed up. Eight on either side of the gate with two more four men team split off as they headed down the guard paths to clear them out.

The gate swung open as the trucks moved forward as they did the teams moved in a second behind it and began to spread out.

"We are in." reported strike team leader as some of the nearby guards and workers on night duty turned an eye turret toward the gate but at first paid it no mind as the first truck in was one of their own. The trucks rolled on by and as they did at different points the Tau'ri raiders jumped out of the fabric covering sides and hit the ground. The sound of them landing did draw the attention of the Race but they were not expecting a fight and not one in which they were outmatched. The Tau'ri commandos opened up with pine point fire from their suppressed weapons dropping them without alerting the entire compound, from there they began to spread out as they began to process of taking control of the compound. The race was under attack and they didn't even know it.

 **The first building the Tau'ri reached was a much like any other building, a large rectangle with no signs of windows.** A simple key pad kept people out but that was easily solved as they placed a small charge on the door and with a pop the lock was blown off. With that the 8-team strike force entered the building. For a brief moment the Tau'ri thought they were in a public high school on a Tau'ri world. White tiled floor with bare walls aside from a few posters which much have been educational in nature by the general feel of them. The corridor was smaller than most but the strike force moved down it with ease. All the lights where off and the team advanced using the night vison sensors in their own helmets to see through it. With their life signs detectors, they passed by multiple rooms with only a glance through small windows cut into the door to show classrooms including desks. Finally, the life sign detector beeped as they neared a corner and saw light coming from it. The point man moved forward and poked his gun around the corner. At the end of the barrel of his rifle was a small camera which feed into the heads up display.

He raised two fingers and pointed down the hall, with that one of the other team members moved across the hall to the opposite corner and aimed his rifle around the corner. He saw two members of the Race sitting behind a desk, one was facing away from them and the other was turned toward them but seamed to be paying more attention to the program on the small TV.

"I'll take the far one you take the TV one." Said the point man as the second one nodded his head and took aim at the one watching TV. "Three…two…one…execute."

Both of them fired three short bursts which sounded like six small pops followed by the metal clang of the gun expelling and loading the next round. Both of their targets where hit and the one watching TV had his or her head explode out of the back of it's head. The Tau'ri moved forward and reached what looked to be a night desk of some kind. As they got closer the number of life signs on their systems exploded with contacts.

"My God look at the number of contacts." said a point man as she looked at the number of life signs detected.

"Calm down, the Opochti have two hearts so you are reading both of them." Said the leader as they reached the desk. It was set up with three large doors, one on each wall. The sound of footsteps caused one of their numbers to turn to look down the hall only to see another Tau'ri round the corner along with three Opochti freedom fighters.

"Sir, we have found what we think is a dorm of some kind." reported the officer as they lined up on one of the doors. They opened it and headed inside to find four rows of bunk beds which stretched the entire length of the room and seamed to go on for at least a 50 yards or more. There was a strange sound coming from the darkness, sounds like low level clicks.

"They are crying." Said one of the freedom fighters as the Tau'ri team leader found a resisted button on the wall. Almost instantly bright lights turned on and the rescues saw the rows of bunk beds full of nude Opochti children. They all where about the same size which showed that they where likely around the same age, all of them looked at the Tau'ri in the lead with fear in their dark eyes. "Those immoral monsters, they didn't even separated the genders and they took their cloths, they have no shame."

To the Tau'ri they couldn't tell the differences between males and females Opochti they all looked like giant mantis with only slight color changes and that seamed more like skin tone then gender related but the Opochti's and the Race themselves had trouble telling Tau'ri men and women apart. The children appeared to have some sort of blue paint on their bodies in multiple thin strips across their arms and across the chest. It was something like what they had seen with the race as a sign of their rank and job, so the likely answer was that was a student level body paint. Some of the children where holding onto each other like siblings would do to comfort each other in difficult times.

"Children." said the freedom fighter as he stepped forward past the Tau'ri so that all of them could see him, "We are here to rescue you and to bring you back to your parents and families. This strangers are our allies and we are getting you out of here, but you need to move quietly and quickly or this will fail."

The children rushed forward forming a line at the door as they began to file out of the room. Some turned and thanked the Tau'ri or asked about other children. The Tau'ri said nothing aside from keep moving and stay as quiet as possible. With the first group cleared out the team opened the next room to find it full of multiple padded shelves each one tiny in scale with what looked to be a large plastic bag filled with water on it.

"What the hell?" asked one of the Tau'ri as they turned on the lights to see that the entire room was filled with these strange bags each on it's own shelves no children at all. "Sir what are these things?"

"No idea." Said the commander as one of them shinned a light on the bag only to jump back. Floating in the bag was large hand sized half formed Opochti child. "Is this some sort of lab of some kind? Are we in some mad man's torcher room?"

"Those monsters even took the unborn from mothers." Said one of the Opochti freedom fighters as he picked up the plastic bag. That is when it hit the female member of the Tau'ri strike team.

"They must have eggs with no hard-outer shells kind of like frogs. Think see through eggs." Said the female member as she looked at all the rows of plastic bags which wasn't actually plastic bags but instead unborn Opochti contained in a semi harden membrane. "This is a nursery of some kind."

"Well this makes our life harder, but we need to get them out of here." Said the Tau'ri commander looked around and saw multiple push carts as suddenly gunfire broke out in the distance. Their cover was broken, the countdown clock to pull out had just started. "Great it just got even more complex."

"Sir, we entered the other room and it is full of children, maybe they can carry the…what do you call them babies? Eggs? Or what?" inquired another Tau'ri

"Doesn't matter get them in here and let them carry them out." Ordered the commander as more gunfire broke out.

 **Before the alarm was sound Kassquit wanted nothing to do but go back to her room and get some sleep.** She wanted to observe the processing of the last group of new students and that meant she was up instead of asleep on her sleeping mat. She stood in the main hall processing, as she stood monitoring the new arrivals processing, this time she was on the floor itself watching as the young males and females of her own DNA kin was being processed. Some looked at her with hope in their eyes until they saw the body paint and they knew she was loyal to the Emperor and the Race.

"Traitor." Said a male about her own age. "Traitor to your kind."

"In time you will be like me and embrace culture of the Race and the truth which is the spirits of Emperor's past and you and I will be the same, loyal citizens of the Empire." said Kassquit as suddenly the sound of gunfire caused everyone even the infantry males in the room with them to look in confusion as the hissing sound which was the alarm began to go off.

"By the emperor we are under attack." said Kassquit.

"Superior Sir, do you hear me?" hissed a nearby guard into his radio but it wasn't working. "Anyone else got command?"

"No sir." came back everyone.

"That makes no sense, radios just don't fail." snapped Kassquit as suddenly the sound of gunfire right outside their building caused her to look toward the line of windows which looked out on the world. There was a large park lined with bushes, their black disks marking them as being originally from home. She dreamed for a moment of seeing home, but the cold sleep technology had yet to be developed for her species. She wished she was a female of the Race again, like she did every day when she saw a male of the Race taking cover behind a small wall which separated the park from a roadway begin to fire down the road.

"Our families are coming to get us." said some Vantic savage behind her.

"Your families" countered Kassquit putting as much distain in the word Family as she knew possible "Are being slaughtered by the Soldiers of the Emperor."

She cast her eyes down and looked up and out just in time to see the solider who had been taking cover behind the wall disappeared along with part of the wall in a cloud of smoke. Other males fighting back seemed confused for a moment, then Kassquit saw it to and shared in their confusion as a vehicle which was different than anything she had ever seen before came out of the smoke.

At first glance she thought it may be a land cruiser, but it was too small and it had eight wheels not tracks. It had a turret which was shaped differently and the front of it was partly slopped upwards for some unknown reason. The turret turned toward the males of the race who were firing at it and with a roar the heavy machine cannon on it spoke as it tore the males of the Race. The low wall which was designed more to mark a path than anything else was not designed or able to stand against the slamming rounds which ripped into them. The walls could stop a bullet but not a cannon shell, the males went down in pools of blood. The vehicle turned its turret away from Kassquit and toward something she couldn't see and fired again. She turned to see more males and females of the Race had been murdered by this strange vehicle. Some of them had been soldiers while others where members of the staff here who had come out to see what was going on and paid for it with their lives.

Kassquit stood there in stunned amazement as the members of the Race, the most powerful species in the galaxy was tossed aside like trash. Then out of the smoke flanking the vehicle came more of those strange vehicles and two more types she had never seen before. One looked more like a regular military car and even had a machine gun on top, but instead of a male of the race at the controls a strange creature dressed in wrappings like a Vantic controlled the gun. It had a covered helmet which prevented Kassquit from seeing what it really was. The other vehicle looked to be a much larger version of a heavy army truck. Then more of those creatures appeared in the center of the school complex along with local Vantic.

They walked on two legs with no tail stump, they wore wrappings and armor, she couldn't see anyone of their faces because of what looked to be a full visor helmet and all of them where armed. Behind them moving much more carefully where Vantic, only these Vantic where armed with guns and guns she had never seen before. They were different than the ones the creatures carried but they were not made by the Race either.

"By the Emperor." said Kassquit as she moved toward the door only to see flashes of gunfire coming from outside. She stood at the door in pure terror then for a moment everything stopped and it was as if time itself had stopped. Then the doors flew open and four of those creatures stepped in and with bursts of fire from their guns dropped the few males of the race in the room. The bullets coming so close to her she heard the snap of them flying past her head. She lifted her hands up to the side of her head toward the holes which allowed sound waves to enter her hearing cannel.

Reacting out of pure animal instinct she ran for the opposite door, she was about to reach it when it too opened and another pair of those creatures along with two Vantic armed with strange rifles burst in.

"Don't worry, we are saving you." said one of the strange creatures with a voice that sounded like it came out of a computer.

"Be calm, we are going to get you all out of here." Said one of the Vantic as multiple clicking sounds filled the air.

"She is a traitor she is a follower of the oppressors." said multiple of the Vantic young that she had been processing only moments earlier. One of the Vantic warriors raised his strange new weapon at her only to have a nearby creature place a hand on the barrel forcing it down.

"Our orders are to rescue all your people, we will take care of her." said the creature as the primitive which was going to gun her down glared at the creature for a moment before lowering his rifle.

"Very well." Said the Vantic solider as he turned to look at the young in the room. "Grab your cloths and follow me."

They ran out and disappeared down the hallway leaving Kassquit alone with six of these strange creatures. They spoke to each other using grunts and groins she never heard before only to finally have one of them turn to her again.

"Come with us, we will take you to the Alligator." said the creature

"I am a citizen of the Empire and you have no right to take me anywhere." said Kassquit as suddenly one of them raised a pistol and aimed it right between her eyes.

"Listen, we have a team in your command center and we have all the video records of what you do here. Taking kids away from their parents and other families and force them to follow your belief. If it wasn't because I half way believe you had the same thing done to you I would shoot you right here and now and move on." Said the creature "Now move or else I will have to reconsider if trying to save you from your own brainwashed self is really worth putting my men at risk."

"I am a citizen of the Empire and I demand to know who you are." Said Kassquit even as she began to move.

"Well we are Tau'ri from Earth but you may know us better as Tosevites from Tosev 3." Said one of the creatures, a Tau'ri as they call themselves.

"Impossible Tosevites as sword swing savages." Stated Kassquit

"Maybe 900 years ago but things change a lot faster for us then they do with your Empire. We have warships over Home as we speak and if your little Emperor doesn't accept our terms you can kiss his scale covered ass goodbye." Stated the Tau'ri as they walked outside, the smell of smoke and the stink of death caused Kassquit to stop in her tracks almost as fast as the insult to the Emperor had. The Emperor was the beating heart of the Empire, he was the one who would sit in judgement of their souls and to insult him was inconceivable. She was about to say so when she spotted one of the Tau'ri standing by that strange vehicle which looked like a wheeled Land Cruiser. Unlike the others he or she had his helmet off and she was able to see the slightly deep brown tone of his flesh and black fur on the top of his head. That was a Tosevite, she had seen the videos from Tosev 3 and he was on Vantic five and armed no less.

As she passed him by she noticed he was showing off what looked to be a bullet mark on his helmet to another solider. She had seen that before where some males showed off battle damaged gear to other males and females to show how they had been in danger. Then she was forced into this Alligator, it was one of those land cruisers only it had a fighting compartment in the back like an infantry carrier. She was forced in that and restrained with plastic ties and rope all at gun point. Then two Tau'ri got in with her and closed the door, then she waited.

 **The Tau'ri military base on Aquaria had to currently have the strangest mix of aircraft sitting on it's massive ship parking area.** The base itself was massive in size and held all four main branches of the Tau'ri military in some way or another, with the army, Air force and Marines holding the bulk of the area. The Navy had a smaller imprint then one would normally think but they did have a massive floating space station/defense platform floating overhead which was dominated by them and the marines which countered the lack of navy personal ground side. With eight large runways and massive hangers and outbuildings it was in the second largest Tau'ri military base outside of Tau'ri space, with only the base on Tollan beating it and then not by much.

Tollan was special in multiple ways it pretty much sat in the middle of a tringle formed by Earth, Lanagara and Vahalla and as such held major importance to the Tau'ri fleet as a communication and staging center. The horrible history of Tollan and her people who had been among the most advanced humans until the Goa'uld Anubis all but whipped them out. A civilization who once had millions of citizens had been reduced to a few thousands. The Tau'ri military and civilian personal on Tollan actually outnumbered the locals and the process of rebuilding what was lost in a few short years would take untold generations if it was ever possible to begin with. They were an independent power officially but unofficially it was clear that they would be brought into the greater Tau'ri alliance.

While Tollan may have the largest base outside of a Tau'ri world it was clear at the moment Aquaria had the strangest mix of aircraft on the ground. Sitting on the tarmac was over a 100 colonial vipers and across a runway from them sat Tau'ri Eagle space fighters and Taita's fighter bombers, that alone wouldn't have been too odd but hidden in the massive hangers behind the Eagles and Taitas where a mixture of Wraith Darts, Death Gliders, Ori Fighters, Pre War and Post War Cylon Raiders all of them where being made ready to launch. In the case of the Cylon fighters a small group of Cylon centurions worked on their crafts.

In the hanger next to the gathering of strange crafts the newest ship class in the Tau'ri Navy the frigate Normandy sat. While being the smallest ship of the Tau'ri navy it took up the largest hanger that could be found on the base.

"So we are going to pit 100 colonial pilots against different types of aircrafts and then test them against the Normandy?" inquired Joker as he sat in the pilot's seat of the Normandy.

"For the most part." answered the ships AI, EDI as she sat down in the copilots chair. As only a hologram of the ships AI system she actually didn't have to sit but she did anyhow. "Command, wants to test these pilots to become trainers for the worlds we are giving Vipers too for self-defense. I believe they are going to take the top 20 or so and send 10 to Tollan to train pilots and another 10 to a world in Pegasus, not sure where."

"And since they are colonials they are more likely to actually want to shoot us down and as such we get a more realist fight then if we went up against the Cylons or Free Jaffa nation in training." Said Joker as he leaned back a bit in the leather pilot's chair.

"That is the idea." Said EDI as Joker let out a breath, on some levels he didn't feel comfortable with an AI on the ship. He knew that the AI of the intelligence EDI had was considered a Tau'ri citizen and after her tour of duty could if she wanted to be downloaded into a cloned human body and live the rest of her life as a human. Still it reminded him too much of the movies where the AI went crazy and tried to kill everyone. That the designers had put in safe guards like limiting her access to weapons and putting in hard blocks to prevent her from shutting down life support provided some insight that they weren't sure about AI yet either.

The sound of the airlock door opening in the side of the ship beside him caused Joker to turn in his chair as a man and a woman walked into the pilot's cockpit located at the front of the long neck which came out of the main body of the Normandy. The man wore a Tau'ri marine uniform and wore patches showing that he served on the front lines during the Colonial invasion. The other was one of the most beautiful woman he had ever seen and looked as if she belonged more in a playboy centerfold not in a pair of black jeans and a white top with a black leather jacket over it all.

"Flight Lieutenant Moreau." Said the man in an accent that Jeff couldn't place, he did a quick glance and saw the Kenyan flag just below the Tau'ri flag on his shoulder. Jeff had the American flag under the Tau'ri one on his uniform. It wasn't officially needed anymore everyone was still Tau'ri but it marked there local home, no one said anything and it wasn't even required on their uniforms. "I am Major Jacob Taylor and this is Pr. Miranda Lawson."

Jeff blinked as he looked at Pr. Lawson and checked to see if she wore a patch on her jacket showing her birth nation but it was pure black leather no sign pointing to her home nation. But black hair and white skin did point more toward European descendant but not fully.

"Welcome on board the Normandy, it may be brand new but as far as we know everything looks good." Said Joker

"I should hope for, I helped designed her systems." said Miranda in a voice that pointed more toward Spain which caused Joker to be more confused than ever because she didn't look Spanish in any real noticeable way.

"If I am interrupt Pr. Lawson but I think Jeff is trying to figure out where on Earth you are from." Added EDI who had a knowing smile on her holographic face.

"I see." Said Miranda as she looked at Joker. "I am not from Earth, I am from Lanagara."

"Ah, I see no wonder I couldn't place your accent." Laughed Joker "Now how can I help you?"

"Just taking a tour of the ship, I have been busy with other projects and setting up this test of the Normandy and the new variant of the Eagle which will be tested alongside this ship." said Miranda as Joker blinked, a new variant of the Eagle wasn't anything unexpected they had been updating the Eagle since it came out all the way back in 2002. There was talks that a replacement was being devolved but it seamed that the powers that be went instead of a new variant.

"What is special about the new one?" inquired Joker "More missiles I assume, they are always doing that. The first ones had 4 missiles and now they are up to 10."

"No the new one only has 8 missiles but it now has a fully functioning long range hyperdrive." Said Miranda as Joker blinked, the Eagle had always had a hyperdrive but it never really worked properly at first and later the range was very limited. During the war Eagles flying out of Valhalla couldn't make it to the colonies while their bomber counter parts could. "Also we have found a way to make it take up less room on a ship meaning we can fit more aircraft on a carrier."

"How?" inquired Joker

"Well we finally figured out how to fold the wings without breaking any of the complex internal items." said Miranda as she pulled out her phone and showed a photo, it did show an Eagle fighter only with its wings about a third of a way down from the cockpit folded up so that head on the aircraft took on almost a triangle like outline. "With this we will be able to at least double if not triple the number of Eagle's we can fit on our ships which would increase our striking power of our forces almost at once. Better yet they we can modify the Eagles already in serves. That is my job, I study and find ways to integrate new technology into our equipment and now it is time to test them"

 **On Earth President Carter sat behind her desk looking at the holographic display before her, she was in the middle of a conference call with over a dozen captains of the 1** **st** **fleet and the Admiral in command of the Fleet as a whole.**

"So you can pull this off correct?" inquired Carter

"With ease Madam President." reassured the Admiral in command of the Yamato "Total mission time is under 30 minutes and our sensors give us over 24 hours of alert and growing with each new array we put up. Even so our defensives satellites are more than enough to hold the line while the fleet is gone."

"I know." Admitted Carter.

"I don't like it either Madam President but the 7th fleet is currently over Home, the 2nd fleet is at Lanagara and they are in more danger then Earth is, they are near where war will likely break out. The 3rd fleet is over Valhalla and the 12 colonies, the 4th fleet is at the Ori supergate and the 5th and 6th are on border duty elsewhere and to pull them back would take more time and put other worlds and outposts at risk. We are the only fleet that can do it."

"Alright, I wait until I give the speech and them active the virus and move in to clear them out." ordered Carter as she ended the call and turned her attention to the small broadcast crew waiting for her to speak. This speech wouldn't be live, they wanted to record it and then send it out to Home and the Race already translated and with subtitles for the viewers on Home to read.

 **The sound of gunfire had awoken Senior Researcher Felless and after attempting and attempting to contact guards to find out what was going did she leave her room.** She actually had a home only about an hour or so away in Nysha however after such a long day she didn't want to risk her life driving home so tired, so the staff had offered her a guest room. Now she was risking her life in another way as she stepped out of the hallway. She looked out a window into the court yard only to see multiple dead members of the Race. They had been gunned down and strange vehicles along with strange figures moved around in the courtyard, she saw one of them pick up an assault rifle and study it for a moment before tossing it aside like trash. She stood by the window transfixed as she saw the young Vantic hatchlings she was working so hard to reeducated into being proper males and females of the Empire rushed onboard trucks to be taken away from all culture and enlightenment.

In her mind it made no sense, then she saw Kassquit being loaded into the back of what looked to be a wheeled land cruiser of some kind. None of it made sense, the crawlers where too primitive to make anything that could threaten the race but now they had land cruisers. She tried her phone only to find that it wasn't working which was another impossibility, the phone network was full proof. It had been tested and tested again before cell phones where introduced to make sure it worked perfectly the first time and now it wasn't working. She was about to throw her phone in anger when she heard it.

The hissing alarm of the door in the lobby in the floor below her open up swinging open and the sound of strange footsteps followed by gunfire. Fear took over as she skittered for her life like her ancient ancestors would have done on home to escape a predator. She had to get away, she had to get outside and get out of the compound or at least find a hiding spot. She ran to the far end of her floor and down the stairs to reached the ground floor. When she reached the bottom she poked an eye turret around the corner and saw something she had never seen before.

It was as tall as a Vantic which made it almost double the height of a female of the race, it was dressed in strange dark wrappings. They wore helmets that covered their faces and each one of them held military style rifles but not the kind the race used.

"What are they?" whispered Felless as she hoped they didn't spot her. Then she looked to see where she actually was and what was on the other side of the door the creatures where about to enter. She turned an eye turret toward the window and saw the reflection of the sign above the door in the window. It was a dormitory for young hatchlings, hatchlings of the Race, then the creatures began to speak grunts and groans. She was about to warn them not to enter the room, that room was full of hatchlings and hatchlings before they were civilized had habit of attacking anything they didn't know or saw as a threat and that fit these things for sure.

"We have multiple life signs on the other side of the door." said Private as he looked at his life sign detector. "Strange not as many as in the other ones we came across, must be smaller group of locals."

"Well lets go save the kids." Said the leader as he moved into the room, he turned on the switch and was instantly greeted by dozens of lizards, all of them about half their height and looking right at them. All of them had their long claws out and their mouths opened showing rows of needle like teeth. They all had their little eye turrets focused on the three Tau'ri who had entered the room.

"Shit." cursed the private as suddenly all them rushed forward the Tau'ri in a mass of teeth and claws. They yelled for them to stop but they didn't and as they began to back out of the room the Tau'ri opened up going full automatic on the charging mass of lizards. There was no time to aim and the Tau'ri sprayed and prayed as the bullets ripped into the oncoming mass of lizards as the Tau'ri backed out of the room for their lives as the mass kept moving forward.

"Grenade out!" yelled one of them as they tossed in a grenade as the mass neared them. When it went off it tore apart the lizards and made them into mincemeat. The expolostion caused the race to back off for a moment and that moment enough time for the Tau'ri to get out and seal the door.

"Anyone hurt?" inquired the leader all of them still aiming their weapons at the door waiting for it to open.

"No, but sir I think I need some new pants." admitted the younger solider "That was like something out of horror version of Jurassic Park with all these little raptor like dinosaurs coming at us ready to eat us."

"Well, I won't say your wrong." said the commander of the team as suddenly his radio came alive.

"Be aware, the Race has children here as well and they are not friendly they attack on sight and there are whole rooms of them, one man already lost an arm to them." said a voice over the radio "If there is a dark red mark on the door do not enter, that is their rooms do not enter them. They are in buildings 11-16, we are not going to place explosives charges there leave them alone."

"Now they tell us." complained the Tau'ri as their commander checked in to report what had happened and how they had to open fire to escape.

"Understood sounds like you had no choice, we are preparing to pull out get back to the transports." said the voice over the radio "We don't have time to clear out the entire place and we need to get the civilians to a safe area. The Races records show that only buildings 1-6 had Opochti and 7-10 is office/school center. We are going to destroy all of those and leave the others standing."

"Fall back." Ordered the leader as the Tau'ri strike team pulled back the way they came. They never turned the corner which would have lead up the stairs and where Felless was hiding. She didn't know it but her life sign had blended in with the mass of life signs in the room next to hers and as such the Tau'ri didn't notice her. She ran toward the nearest office in building 13 and picked up the phone but it wasn't working by then she noticed the attackers pulling out and watched them from the corner of a window as they pulled out.

The Tau'ri pulled out leaving nothing but death and destruction behind them as they pulled out. They used the same trick to escape notice leaving the base that they used to enter the base. Once again they went unnoticed by the members of the race on the road. As they turned onto the highway and headed back toward Likna they announced their raid as the explosive charges left behind by the Tau'ri special forces in the empty buildings went off. The massive fireball lit up the night and caused a few drivers in their cars to slam on the brakes as they stopped to look at the fireball. The convoy kept moving and when they reached the wall surrounding Likna they kept moving and with a quick stop to unload the Tau'ri special forces the convoy kept moving heading down the tunnel which would lead them to the Stargate.

 **Standing on the outer most wall of the city was General Jager, Colonel Drugov and Prince Unia, they stood there overseeing the last of the defenses being put into place.** The moment the last Tau'ri vehicle entered the city, Tau'ri soldiers, freedom fighters boosted by aid brought in from across the planet and from the local citizens moved the cars used by the now dead Race Military police into the road to form a roadblock.

"I still wish we could get your armor in the city sir." said Drugov

"Too tight for them to move easy and armor in a city is a death trap, I don't even like leaving some self propell and towed guns but it has to be done." Stated Jager before turning to Prince Unia "Are you sure that you wish to stay here and fight? You can come back with me to our camp and await our armored thrust?"

"No, a leader must be at the front with his warriors." Said Prince Unia "He must be seen, he must put himself in danger with his warriors."

"Caesar and his red cloak." Said Jager as Prince Unia tilted his head to an angle which would have either hurt a human to do the same or killed him but it was natural for them. "Long ago a General later turned Emperor named Julius Caesar used to wear a red cloak into battle to show his men that it was him and to inspire his man."

"There is an enormous difference between ordering someone forward into hell and telling them to follow you into the teeth of hell." added Drugov

"I bet you wish you hadn't requested to come here?" inquired Jager as Drugov laughed.

"Hell no sir, I was getting board dodging colonial gun fire time for something new." laughed Drugov "There is only so many times to can drop down into Sagittarian or Gememon, hell Gememon is getting more and more boring. They are finally getting it through their heads that we aren't going anywhere."

"Well Colonel, Prince I will leave the defense of this city in your hands." said General Jager

"Thank you General." Said Prince Unia as Jager turned and walked a short distance to the nearest staircase which lead down to the road. There a command car was waiting to take him down the Tok'ra tunnel and back to the gate hidden in the forest along with the Tau'ri strike force building there.

"Tell me Colonel, how do you see this battle going?" inquired Prince Unia as Drugov looked at him, he wore his helmet just like all the other Tau'ri where doing. The automatic translator built into the power armor helmet was key to communication, even so Prince Unia had a feeling that the Tau'ri solider was giving him a somewhat knowing look.

"It will be slaughter, at first and in the end. The Race doesn't know that you aren't alone in here and when they find out that will throw them back." Stated Drugov, that caused Prince Unia's hopes to go up, then he went on. "Then if this Fleet Lord Straha is as much of a hard ass as you say, he will come down on this city like a firestorm. We will be forced back and that is good. We will lure them out and then General Jager and his armored forces will come sweeping down on them from the flanks crushing them. Once that is done, it is just a short drive to the Capital."

Drugov turned his attention to the city before him, it was a maze of narrow streets with only five of them large enough for true vehicles to go down with ease. Four of them led out of the city and meet in a center market while the fifth made a crazy path around the city without touching the center market but ran through a half dozen smaller markets instead. All those roads had roadblocks now in place and the using drones the Tau'ri had created a map of the city for their forces to use but this was still going to a local fight. All over the city the Tau'ri force which made up the smallest percentage to the defenders showed the Opochti people how best to use the new weapons.

"This is about to get interesting." stated Drugov as two Tau'ri technicians came up to them one holding a tripod with a mini camera on it and the other with a computer in hand. "Time for your broadcast to the people."

 **Well I hope you liked this chapter, I hope to give you one last chapter before Christmas so until then please keep reading. Thanks Wilkins75.**


	18. Chapter 18

**Chapter 18 Opening Moments**

Fleet Lord Straha stormed into his command center in the heart of the drafty stone castle which had been the house and base of power for one of the major powers which had once ruled this world. The Nsyha family which ruled over the city of Nsyha and a large surrounding area, their last living blood line and the last ruler not to accept the Race now ruled, Prince Unia had been an inch under his scales since before he arose to the position of fleet lord.

"How did this happen?" hissed Straha to his aid.

"We don't know superior sir, the terrorist hit the educational center with remarkable skill and strangest of all it happened at night." Explained the aid

"The crawlers don't work well at night, they are afraid of the dark." stated Straha "We took whole towns from them in the dark because their warriors where asleep."

"Yes, exulted fleet lord we don't understand it either what is stranger is that judging from the bullet holes they where armed with our weapons at least and trucks." Stated the aid "All evidence supports that they had trucks."

"But…but crawlers can't drive trucks so how do explain the use of trucks?" inquired Straha

"Sir, the data is still coming in but we think they either found members of the Race willing to help them for money." Explained the aid as Straha tail quivered, a sign of how angry he was.

"How many of the young lings got away?" inquired Straha

"All of them and they managed to kill some of our hatch lings as well." stated the aid "Reports from a Senior Research Felless said they opened a door not knowing that it was held hatch lings of the Race."

"Well I hope the hatch ling's got a bite out of them before dyeing." said Straha, as he brushed the idea of the hatch ling's dyeing. To the Race who had no concept of family outside of the Emperor it didn't mean much if a handful of hatch lings died, it was bad but it wasn't anything worse then a horrible factory accident would have been. "I know Senior Researcher Felless, did she have anything to add about the attack?"

"Only things that make no sense superior sir, she claims to have seen two legged creatures dressed in black wrappings fighting alongside the crawlers and they had land cruisers with them." Reported the aid

"Land cruisers?" inquired Straha

"Yes, exulted fleet lord and while there is some evidence that the terrorist had a heavy weapon there was no sign of the road being torn up like it would with a tracked land cruiser or infantry carrier." Explained the aid "Our experts in the field believe she was mistaken and confused because of the sudden outbreak of combat. She as a civilian would have no experience with combat and the stress might have gotten to her."

"That is a possibility and it isn't limited to civilians, we have gotten reports from combat males about something similar to these creatures described by Senior Researcher Felless." Added Straha as suddenly another aid walked into his office and assumed a position of respect while awaiting to be recognized.

"Yes." snapped Straha as he turned an eye turret to the new comer.

"Excuses me exulted fleet lord, but the terrorist leader Prince Unia has somehow broadcasted a video message on all communication channels." Explained the new aid as Straha hissed in anger as he headed to his desk and turned on his computer. He waited a moment for the computer to turn and within moments found the broadcast.

"I am Prince Unia, broadcasting from a free and liberated city of Likna." Said the terrorist leader, the video even had subtitles on it which amazed Straha but he pushed that aside as he kept watching. "Tonight, the brave freedom fighters of Opochti joined with out new Allies the Tau'ri of the Tau'ri Alliance to carry out a raid to liberate our imprisoned children. This raid was a massive success and the camp was liberated without the loss of a single Opochti child, fighter or any of our Tau'ri friends."

"The Tau'ri have deployed a war fleet to Home and will be place an ultimatum before the Emperor of the Race himself to leave our world within three days or face war between the Empire of the Race and the Tau'ri alliance." stated Prince Unia "We will be free once again my brothers and sisters, we shall be free and the Race will be driven off our home. Likna is free now and will remain free, have hope soon all of our world will be free."

"I want that city surrounded and I want the city back in our control by sunrise tomorrow." ordered Straha "If the fool believe he can bluff the Race with this talk of Tau'ri and a fleet over home he will learn a very harsh lesson."

 **Unaware of the movements taking place on the world he conquered Fleet Lord Avtar was hard at work, forming a plan of which ships would be turning around and making the 34-year trip back to home.** That 34-year home year trip translated into around 17 years for Tosev 3 or Earth as the Tau'ri called it. The past couple of days had been like nothing he had planned for, he had planned to go down in history as the 1st conquer to conquer a second world only to run into the Tau'ri. The Tau'ri Tosevites had shoved everything the Race knew about how advanced races rises and science back onto it's tail stump and then for good measure kicked it multiple times. That was bad enough but now there was a possibility that he would have to defend home and the Empire.

"Luckily, I have time to prepare the Tosevites will not be ready to do anything for a while, it will take time for them to build an army." stated Atvar to himself as he sat behind his desk. He had just finalized the list of transports which would turn and head back toward home when his second in command Kiral appeared on his screen.

"Exulted fleet Lord, we are getting a broadcast from the Tosevite Leader President Carter." Said Kiral as the image changed to this Carter female sitting behind a desk. In the background Atvar could make out the image of the Tau'ri domed capital building and on either side of her where the flags of the Tau'ri, blue and silver which made no logical color sense to any member of the Race. Silver was a high-ranking color about equal to red but no where near gold and blue was a low ranking and ugly color on top of that, but the Tau'ri seamed to love blue.

"Good day, I am President Samantha Carter of the Tau'ri alliance but you of the Race and the subject races may know us better as Tosevites." Said Carter in the language of the Race, that caused Atvar to blink in confusion until he noticed the subtitles on the bottom and her fleshly lips didn't form the right movements to make the sounds. Even so the voice did sound like a female of the Race mixed in with a computerized translator program. "For the past couple of days, we have attempted to open lines of communication with your Emperor involving the arrival of your conquest fleet within our system and the subjection of the Opochti people better know to you as Vantic 5."

The fact that she didn't look down when she said Emperor filled Atvar with anger and that was on top of the fact that she considered herself equal to him. That was already unacceptable but to not even show him that amount of respect was a slap in the snout of every member of the Empire.

"I have come before you to inform you all that a few hours ago Military forces of the Tau'ri joined with Opochti freedom fighters to liberate a camp where kidnapped children had been placed. We have video documenting the removal of children from their families by force and in some cases murder of parents defending their children. Then they are processed where they are stripped of all clothing and siblings are forced broken apart. These are horrible unspeakable crimes by the standards of the Tau'ri and all civilized cultures in the galaxy. As such we are going to give this ultimatum to the Empire of the Race, if you do not order the de-colonization of Vantic 5 and hand it back to it's native people, who you conquered by force and never voted to join your empire then we of the Tau'ri alliance will force you out and if need be destroy your entire empire as a whole. We will give you 3 days to respond to our demand all the while Tau'ri forces will keep helping our Opochti allies. We call on Emperor Risson of the Race to finally meet our diplomat so that we can come to a peaceful agreement before unneeded blood is loss but we will not allow this occupation of a people who clearly never wanted to be citizens of the Empire of Race from going on. Thank you and good day."

Atvar blinked as his mind started racing, three days clearly, they couldn't be serious. There was no way they could raise an army, equip it and everything else in three days. It must be a bluff he decided when suddenly the power on his ship went out. With all the backups and safety systems there should be no way short of a massive explosion that that the ship would lose power yet it had.

"By the Emperor." said Atvar as he moved toward the door only to find it sealed, since it was power open with no power it was sealed.

 **Outside of the banner ship of the race, Battleship Yamato and the rest of the Tau'ri first fleet broke formation and headed straight toward the massive 500 strong Conquest fleet.**

"Admiral, we have conformation all Race ships are disabled." Reported the head electronic warfare officer from her station on the battleship's bridge.

"So looks like those Cylons did design a good virus after all." Stated the Battleships second officer as he stood beside the Admiral. "Everything shut down and they are dead in space."

"Good for us." Confirmed the Admiral as the ships of the fleet moved in among the Conquest fleet. "Helm?"

"Sir, we have reached our assigned position and have the ships within range." Confirmed helm

"Then lock on and prepare to enter hyperspace." ordered the Admiral as across the fleet multiple tractor beams locked onto the ships of the race. The Asgard had towed the half-finished Prometheus to their home galaxy to take part in an operation against the Replicators. While the distance they would have to cover was a lot smaller the amount of ships they where going to transport at the same time was extremely high. Every ship in the fleet, even the small Galahad class Destroyer had to lock on to at least two of the ships with the battleships and carriers locking on to many more ships. As one the fleet towing the Conquest fleet of the Race entered hyperspace for the short journey to the Home System.

It didn't take long but the fleet soon arrived outside of the Home system and released the towed Race fleet.

"Confirm, all Race ships are accounted for." said the sensor operator on board the Yamato as the fleet minus the flag ship turned and headed back toward Earth. They could have stuck around if they had wanted to but when they had left Earth they had briefly left Earth, Venus and Mars with only defense satellites and air support for a defense, no warships. They didn't want to leave the heart of the Tau'ri alliance open like that for long, so a quick turn around was needed as they headed home.

"Reactive the ships and head for home." ordered the Admiral as with a push of a few buttons the Conquest fleet of the Race regained control over their ships. With that done the Yamato turned and opening it's own hyperspace window headed back toward Earth.

With power returned Avatar rushed onto the bridge of the banner ship only to see a stunned Kirel and other officers floating by the screens.

"What is going on, how did we lose power?" inquired Atvar

"Exulted fleet Lord, I don't know how but it seams as if the entire fleet has been transported back to Home System." Reported Kirel as with a nod an officer showed their location on a computer screen. Before his eyes he saw a system every member of the Empire knew well, the make up of the Home system. A glowing red dot showed their location as just on the far edge of the system, they where at least four days out from Home. Four days and the Tau'ri deadline was three days, if the Tau'ri did mean three days when they said three days until war broke out between the Race and the Tau'ri then they were out of the fight.

"Begin waking everyone up and debrief them, we have to ready to fight." ordered Atvar as Kirel blinked but gave the only answer he could.

"It shall be done." Confirmed Kirel

"And order the planners, we need plans to defend the Capital from invasion." ordered Atvar as Kirel looked horrified at the idea of war coming to Home, yet alone the Capital city of Preffilo. "And how to retake the Imperial Palace if it should fall to a Tau'ri invasion."

"It shall be done." confirmed Kirel as the officers under him began their work of spreading the Fleet Lord's orders and awakening the warriors of the Race. They would awaken to find things very different then what they had expected and what they trained for. Instead of adding a fifth world to the Empire, they may be called to defend Home itself.

 **Kassquit glared at the two Tosevites sitting by the back ramp of this wheeled land cruiser, she glared at them as hard as she cold wishing that they would be hurt in some way.** Instead they sat across from each other with their weapons resting across their laps. She looked at her hardened plastic restraints around her hands and legs wishing she had the strength to rip them apart and to attack these enemy of the Race. In the tight space her large size which made her stand out among the Race would come in handy. She was about to try to rush them even with her legs restrained to the floor when suddenly this blue wall appeared beside her, she tried to get away but couldn't as this liquid like substance washed over her. Next thing she knew the blue wave was gone and she was back to normal.

"What by the Emperor was that?" inquired Kassquit

"That…that was just the Alligator passing through the Stargate shouldn't be much longer now." Answered one of the Tosevites as the sound of the vehicle changed, it sounded as if they had moved from off road to back to paved roads. She had no idea what was going on and then finally this Alligator came to a stop and the back ramp opened and a rush of wet cool air came flooding into the area along with bright sunlight.

It was the sunlight that confused Kassquit more than the cool wet air, two things that were rare on Vantic 5 which had larger oceans then the other worlds the race ruled but they where quiet a distance away from where she had been. One of the Tosevites undid her leg restrains and grabbing the restraints she was lead out of the mini land cruiser and at once she wish she hadn't. She was surrounded by strange green plants and even stranger buildings. In the distance a large multi sided building with a dome over it could be seen. Its design was unlike anything the Race would ever build, then she looked at the much taller buildings which made out the background. They reached high into the sky with narrow like frames of glass and metal, frames that would have been unsafe but still they rose reaching up toward the sky. There was also a much larger and more massive domed building in the distance.

"Welcome to Earth or as you call it Tosev 3." said her Tau'ri capture as a figure dressed in strange wrappings with a larger white wrapping over it all came up to her.

"We got traitor for you, this one worked for the Race." Said one of her captures to another Tau'ri, she didn't even notice that they spoke in the tongue of the Race through a robotic sounding devise.

"I am no traitor, I serve the Emperor and I was raised as a citizen of the Empire." said Kassquit as she looked, the hatchlings which should be waking up to begin their lessons and the process of becoming true civilized citizens of the Empire. Instead they rushed off large trucks and toward more Tosevites who were handing out wrappings. The younglings got dressed as quick as they could, wrappings was something that made no sense to Kassquit and was a waste of time. Body paint was the best and only proper way to go.

"Looks like it's more of a physical case." Said the Tosevite in white, as Kassquit looked as the younglings rushed toward gatherings of elders Vantic. Some of them hugged older Vantic as the bond of blood which was so important to their culture was reinforced. To Kassquit it was a sign of how primitive they where but then she looked around and realized that she was facing a civilization which was maybe equal to the Empire.

"As a citizen of the Empire, I demand that you release me. Your act of taking me against my will could be seen as an act of war." Demanded Kassquit

"Considering we have just given the Race a demand to surrender Opochti or as you call if Vantic 5 or face war and the total destruction of their Empire." Said the solider

"A war you can't win, we are the Empire and the Race is the most advanced civilization in the galaxy." stated Kassquit

"Listen, I don't know if you're a male or a female but I know you are a blind idiot the Race wouldn't even crack the top 100 in the most advanced race while we likely sitting at either number one or number two depending if you count the Nox or not." stated the Tosevites "We already have a war fleet over the Capital world and since we have Faster then light travel and you don't, add to that that your Empire has no standing military and we just finished a 4 year long war where we defeated 12 entire worlds means this war will be so one sided it will not even be funny."

Kassquit glared at this Tosevite, she was about to tell him how wrong he was when she noticed a much heavier land cruiser sitting on a nearby clearing in the center of the park. Then she heard and saw a flight of black killer crafts fly over their heads. The Tosevites didn't pay the strange killer crafts any mind but she did and it scared her because it was a clear sign of how dangerous these Tosevite's where.

 **The military force of the Race began to arrive on the field, it was made up of mostly tanks or as they race called them Land Cruisers, APCs and trucks.** Infantry males jumped out of the back of those trucks and began to form up. All of them where the standard race body armor and had helmets on their heads which where designed to fit their eyes stocks. Even so to the Tau'ri forces on the walls around Likna they looked under dress for the fight, the Tau'ri for their part where staying out of sight using the very design of the wall to hide from the view of the Race. The wall had large battlements with arrow slits which would work just as well for guns. In larger gaps machine guns had been hidden and waited to unleash on the threat. Only Opochti people maned the walls and they only carried the older pre-conquest weapons, the large caliber wheel lock rifles, spears and swords.

The race buzzed over the city with a handful of attack helicopters but so far did not fire as they began to blare out a speech from load speakers on the chopper.

"Attention terrorists surrender to the forces of the Race and spare your lives; this rebellion is over and it is time to accept the glories future the Race is bringing to you primitives." said the voice out of the speakers as it passed over where they had risen the bronze and white banner of Prince Unia and the Blue and Silver flag of the Tau'ri flapped over the city.

Out in the fields which surrounded the city the soldiers of the race prepared for an easy mission, the police would actually go in first and arrest the trouble makers, while the soldiers go in behind them in support and secure the outside.

"Sir, when will we go in?" inquired one of the lower ranking males.

"Night fall, the Crawlers don't like the dark and we own it." said the male as more and more armor and military forces showed up. Until the entire city was rung in armor and forces as Race aircraft flew overhead in a show of force. It did frighten the locals somewhat but seeing that the Tau'ri where not impressed did help. For the race they were confused by what they saw, multiple road blocks that was something the Vantic had never did during the war. Then there was the fact that large areas had what looked to be sheets spread over them preventing them from seeing visually what was going on. To the commanders on the ground, this was odd but nothing to worry about, they had thermal scanners which cut through the cloth barriers and saw the crawlers below. What the thermal scanners didn't show was the Tau'ri forces, the thermal systems built into their power armor blended their heat source in with the back ground so they were invisible to the airborne spies. They also didn't see the Tau'ri self-propelled guns hiding in markets places or the mortar teams and the towed guns set up in ambush position around the city. The pilots didn't spot the high flying Tau'ri drones which were already marking targets for the artery men in the self-propelled guns.

 **Sitting just within Artillery range of the gathering Race force but outside of range for the city itself sat a massive woods surrounded by farm land and a nearby new six lane highway which lead right past Likna on its way to the Race's Capital Nysha.**

A large group of Vantic farmers where hard at work in those fields when an infantry carrier rolled up to them. The carrier crushed plants waiting to be harvested by the farmers, the driver in the tracked machine could have cared less as it came to a stop and the farmers looked up from their hand tools. The back ramp lowered as a squad of males of the race came out and raised their weapons at the farmers.

"What are you doing? Why are you leveling this ground?" inquired the head male

"Superior sir, it is traditional that we do that when we are preparing an offering to the ancestors." said one of the middle age farmers.

"Offering to the Ancestors?" inquired the male

"Yes, sir. We prepare a piece of land that we will not farm so that our ancestors can use it in the other world." Said the farmer "And in return they grant us a bountiful harvest on the land next growing season."

"Sir, sounds like they are resting the land and letting the soil regain nutrients." said a lower ranking male.

"I see, well even if they are doing it for a stupid reason they found a way to put the land to better use." Said the Male before looking at the farmers. "You don't have to level the land, you would be better collecting the harvest and letting the ground be."

"Forgive us superior sir but we will keep doing what we are doing." said the farmer as the male of the race shrugged before moving on letting the crawlers waste their time. What the males of the Race failed to notice that the strip of land that the farmers where clearing and leveling was much longer then it was wide, and it went up to the woods. The farmers where not clearing and leveling the land for their ancestors instead they were helping liberate their world. In the woods where six Tau'ri Osprey ground attack aircraft where being reassembled by the Tau'ri after breaking them down and transporting them through the gate. The Ospreys which where based off the A-10 Lightning better known as the Warthog was going to tear apart the race's ground forces in the opening moments.

Besides the Ospreys, Leopard main battle tanks, Puma recon vehicles, Tiger multiple rocket launchers and other combat vehicles and infantry gathering in those woods. Unlike with what they did on Tauron which they set everything up within a single night, this wood take time. It wasn't that anything they where doing wasn't hard it was because unlike on Tauron here they hadn't planned everything out for years. They had to do everything on the fly and that took time because if they where discovered it would mean a lot of trouble until the fleet arrived.

 **Starbuck found herself and what had to be a hundred or so colonial pilots sitting on folding chairs in a hanger, behind them sitting out in the sun where the same type of strip down vipers that she had been test flying for her job on Virgon.** They sat on the Tau'ri military base on Aquaria which pissed her off but the job offering the Tau'ri was supposed to be offering a luckily few was to die for. She sat about half way between the middle point and the front row, a small platform sat at the front and a Tau'ri officer stood there checking his watch. When it was time he tapped the microphone, and spoke.

"Alright, I am Colonel Winters head of the Air Wings here and it is my job to welcome you to our base, only a short time ago where were shooting at each other and it is my job to find among you all 104 pilots to fill 20 slots." Said General Winters "Now, I will cut straight to the point, we have assigned you all randomly to one of 4 squadrons, Red, Blue, Green and Yellow, each one made out of 26 Vipers. Your wing mate has also been chosen random."

There was some grumbling at that as Starbuck double checked the small piece of paper she had been given as she came in. In the corner of the top page right below her name and Military ID number was Green 7.

"So Green Squadron Viper 7." said Kara to herself as she looked up to see General Winters waiting for the grumbling to stop.

"Before we go on, I will explain what we are looking for. We are looking for viper pilots for our off world training centers. If chosen you will be training pilots from worlds not belonging to the Tau'ri alliance but may be within our borders how to fly, repair and fight inside the Vipers we are currently giving them for defense." explained Colonel Winters "Now if you accept, you will still or in some cases rejoin the colonial military but as long as you are on our bases you will be under our direct control. You will be expected to follow all orders as if it is from Colonial command."

"So you can order us into battle?" inquired a pilot a couple rows away from her.

"No, you will have no active fighting but if you get into drunken fight expect to spend a couple days in a cell." explained Colonel Winters "In return you will get paid by both your government and the Tau'ri government and in Tau'ri credits or Colonial Cubits depending on which you want."

"Tau'ri credits? I thought it was Tau'ri dollars?" inquired another voice, a woman's.

"Officially our currency is Tau'ri credit however some people mostly Americans tend to call it Tau'ri Dollar, it is the same thing." Explained Winters with a slight laugh, before turning serious again. "Now since you are all so focused on money I might as well add that of the 20 positions, 10 of them are in the Pegasus galaxy and if you go there you will get an additional bounce however you will not come back to the colonies for at least a 18 months while the people who go to Tolan will be able to come back to the colonies every couple of weeks depending on scheduling."

"How much better does it pay?" yelled Kara, she didn't have any families and while she still had some friends it may be worth it.

"Just over double." said Winters as Kara and a lot of others sat up. The Tau'ri where offering to pay 10 of them almost 4 times their normal pay and that was with free room and board. True it would mean a very long deployment but so what. "Also on the Pegasus front there is a greater risk that you may be forced to defend yourself which means you could end up in combat as such you would also get combat pay if that happens which is an additional amount added for that pay period."

"Frak, it I could go there and make enough money to pay for the wedding, a house and everything else we need." Said a young man beside her as Kara eyed the new ring on his finger.

"If she doesn't leave you in the 18 months your gone." added Kara as she planted the seed of dough in the man's mind. The better her chances of getting that training position in Pegasus.

"Now, you will all be handed a binder with flight information about the main types of enemies you will be tested against. Tomorrow we will see how you do against something you all should have experience against, Eagles and Taitas will fly against you tomorrow along with some other surprises." Said Winters with a smile that told Kara and every other pilot with half a brain that the Tau'ri had other plans. "Now you are all dismissed until 05:00 tomorrow with a takeoff an hour later at 06:00."

Kara got up and unlike the others who where all searching for their squadron mates and wing mates headed toward Lee.

"So what are the Tau'ri planning?" inquired Kara "It is something more then to test our skills."

"Yes." Confirmed Lee "They have new versions of their Eagles, we have spotted them on the runway and there is a ship a small ship sitting a couple hangers down from us."

"So we are their testers, could be fraken worse." Added Kara as Lee held his breath for a moment.

"They also have some Cylon raiders, old ones and what we assume to be new generation raiders as well." Stated Lee as Kara blinked. "I just found out from our ground team spotters."

"Cylons on Aquaria." growled Kara as Lee nodded.

"Yes, on a Tau'ri base and the Tau'ri know that we know." added Lee with a small laugh. "They know we have teams of spotters watching their aircraft come and go. The fact that they show us these things only tell us that these things are so close to going into production that we are only the last test."

"And that they aren't that concerned about us as a threat." added Kara as Lee nodded his head.

"Excuses me are you Yellow 2?" inquired a woman as Kara glared at the pilot before shaking her head.

"You better go find your squadron and find out who you have to deal with as a wing man." said Lee as Kara stormed off toward where a man was yellow Green Squadron.

"Green Squadron?" inquired the man

"Yes, Green 7." Answered Kara

"Your my wingman." said a kid who looked like he belonged in flight school not here, he looked to be maybe 22 at the oldest and had deep brown hair and brown eyes. "Justinian Batur."

"Kara Thrace, please tell me you got out of flight school before the end of the war?" inquired Kara

"Yes, I was ninth in my class on Libran flight school and flew three missions one of them was a combat mission." added Justinian as Kara translated that in her mind to two patrol mission which could have been flown by a well-trained monkey and a combat mission which likely ended with him being shot down. "I shot up a column of tanks before I was shot down by one of those."

He pointed out the open hanger to a Tau'ri aircraft sitting on the runway, to Kara's horror it wasn't even an Eagle fighter but one of the Tau'ri ground attack aircraft. The one with straight wings and a massive machine gun in it's nose to tear up armor. This boy had been shot down by a ground attack aircraft.

"Libran, the world who gave up the fight first." Stated Kara as she wanted to get a drink. "I shot down a Tau'ri Eagle fighter when we first made contact with them and flew in multiple combat missions during the war."

That got this young man's attention.

"I hope to learn from you." Said Justinian

"So tell me which job are you going for?" inquired Kara

"This Tolan job, I have friends back on Libran." answered Justinian before blushing like a little kid. "See there is a girl, Acacia who I want to get with. I haven't seen her since the war ended but before we both went to basic we where good friends and I hope we can become more than that. If I get this job it will sure impress her and rise my chances of getting a date from her."

"Great a love-sick puppy." said Kara under her breath as she rolled her eye, she didn't want to baby sit this puppy but if she left him hanging to get his ass shot ass it would be noticed by the Tau'ri watching them.

"Have you ever asked this girl out before?" inquired Kara as Justinian shook his head. "You have bee trying to work up the nerve and to find a way to impress her when you do ask her out, haven't you?"

"Yes." admitted Justinian

"Word of advice kid and stop trying to impress her and ask her out before someone beats you too it." Stated Kara wondering how she was so unlucky to get this kid as a wingman.

 **Today was a relaxing day, it's main goal was to get everyone used to the day schedule on Valhalla. Acacia and Medea strangely where the lucky ones because the time was generally the same here as it was in their home town Kingstown on Aquaria.** The Lefeld clan had a little rougher time, because what was normally lunch time where they lived was early morning on Valhalla. Acacia wasn't going to complain, they still had 8 days left on their trip and they had only 2 Disney parks and the universal park next door to visit and her trip to the animal sanctuary, they had time to take things slow. Even they had to rush she was enjoying herself too much at the moment, they had finished their shopping and gone to a water park, Goofy's Plunge.

"I must admit you Tau'ri do love your theming." observed Acacia as she lied in a hammock with her boyfriend Captain Robert Lefeld. There where dozens of beach hammocks in this area and a nearby bar, the whole park wasn't much different then a water park back in the colonies. In the colonies theming wasn't that big of a deal and they wouldn't have bothered to plant palm trees and put sand on the ground or to put the massive slides inside a fake mountain.

"Well we want you to feel escape." explained a half-asleep Robert as he ran on hand through her hair and to the top of her back. She could feel him playing a bit with the strings of her bikini top but not tugging on the strings. That was a sure-fire way to get kicked out of the parks and neither of them wanted that. "I hope my family isn't driving you too crazy?"

"Not at all." Said Acacia as she nuzzled into her boyfriend's chest as he kissed her forehead and the two of them relaxed and enjoyed the sun and the sound of nearby waves in the massive wave pool. They had enjoyed that and the lazy river before they ate. Now it was time to sit relax and let the food digest.

The sound of Robert's ringing phone broke up this moment as he lifted his hand up and toward the metal bands around his arm. One band around the wrist with another about five inches away, a the almost fabric material ran between the two. Robert tapped the fabric as the high-tech phone turned on, it was a video phone and Robert lifted the phone up to look at the small screen. From her position with her head on his chest she could look and see the image. At first she was confused, it looked to be a woman sitting behind a desk and dressed in a Tau'ri uniform with the screaming Eagle patch of Robert's Division on her arm. She could feel Robert tense up as he looked at the image.

"General Ross." Said Robert "I am sorry, I am…"

"Captain Lefeld you are on vacation, I called you I can't complain if you are out of uniform." Said General Ross as she looked toward a stunned Acacia "However I didn't expect that, I hope I am not interrupting anything."

"No Madam, we are at Goofy's Plunge." explained Robert as the General nodded

"I see, the hammock section I believe, I have spent some time there with my husband while our kids and grandkids went crazy in the pools." Explained General Ross with a smile remembering the memories. "However, I didn't call about that, I found out about those strings you pulled and I wonder if you want more strings pulled?"

"Madam?" inquired Robert as Acacia tensed it, it was Robert's sister who had pulled strings to get her school accredited by the Tau'ri educational system and then to work on the scholarship.

"Captain, there is no shame in pulling those strings kind of surprised you haven't tried to pull more considering your status of semi famous for the flag raising either way that isn't why I called. I called because we are setting up an satellite base on Libran and are planning to move 2 paratrooper companies to the new base. Quicker reaction time to situations on Sagittarian, Libran and Sagittarian are in the same system." Said General Ross as Robert tensed and so did she. "How would you like to be in command of one of those companies and XO to the Lieutenant Colonel in charge?"

"Madam, I would be honored." said Robert "Where is the base?"

"We are going to take over a small training base outside of a place called Jester's hill." Said General Ross

"That is only an hour away from my school outside of Kingstown." Said Acacia, as her heart rate picked up. One of the major issues in their relationship was the distance between him on Aquaria and her on Libran.

"One of the personal side benefits for Major Lefeld." Said General Ross as Robert stiffened again.

"Thank you General." Said Robert who had just found himself promoted from Captain to Major. In the end he would be doing the same basic job commanding a company of men but now he would do it with golden oak leaves instead of golden bars. He would likely be the second most senior for both Companies and second behind the Lieutenant Colonel.

"Not a problem, your outstanding record mean you deserve your rank and the PR people are still going on about that little idea you had about going to visit your girlfriend's brother class. They are talking about taking it to each of the colonies." Said the General not adding that since the end of the war, all the branches of the military where losing officers but the army was losing the most and the increase in rank was a way to keep him in uniform. "I will have your new rank insignia waiting for you when you get back from vacation and orders sending you to our base once we actually set it up, now I'll let you get back to relaxing."

With that the call ended and the home screen of the phone appeared showing the time and the screaming eagle of the 101st airborne.

"Wow…" said Robert not sure what else to say but before he could Acacia was lying on top of him and in a voice as happy as a school girl.

"Congratulations…Major Lefeld." said Acacia as she kissed him.

"And I get to be closer to you? That is the real bounce, where is this Jester's hill?" inquired Robert

"About an hour away from my campus toward Kingstown." explained Acacia "You drive past it every time to fly into Kingstown to visit me."

The two of them started kissing and a full make out season only to stop when a load cough caused both of them to break apart, their faces bright red.

"Well if you want to make me a grandma, first get married and secondly go back to your room." Said Robert's mother as the two of them still blushing got out of the hammock.

"Sorry, it's just I got a phone call I have been promoted and transferred to a new base on Libran, only about an hour away from Acacia." Explained Robert as a smile crossed his mother's face.

"Great news, on both fronts." Said his mother before looking at Acacia with a smile. "Which is better this or the school issue in the process of being solved."

"Frak." cursed Acacia as Robert blinked and looked at her. She quickly explained how Robert's older sister had pulled in a favor to get her school in the process of being accredited by the Tau'ri and working on the scholarship issue and how his sister was going to bring a gift to the woman back on Earth pulling the strings. Robert let out a sigh as he looked at his mother.

"How much was the thing, I should pay for it, it is helping Acacia and I out." Said Robert

"No, I should pay for it not you and I tried but she turned me down, so just be happy Major Lefeld." Said Acacia as she kissed him again. They turned back toward the hammock to see another couple had taken it while their backs where turned.

"Son of a bitch." Cursed Robert as the two women in the hammock laughed at him.

"What do you expect buddy, these things are popular." said one of the woman as Acacia for her part was laughing at her boyfriend.

"Come on let's head back to the wave pool." Said Acacia as she dragged him toward the water as they enjoyed their time together.

 **An emergency meeting was taking place within the Imperial Palace as Emperor Risson himself ordered the meeting to start at once, at once took just over 6 hours.** It took that long to get everything set up, the ceremonial table ready and to assembly all the needed experts. The time also gave those experts time to gather their thoughts and to get a handle on something that had never been considered, Home being invaded by another empire.

"It is clearly not possible your majesty." said an expert "To raise a military, train and equipment them and bring them to combat would take much longer then three days."

"I agree, your majesty we are just beginning to plan the rearmament of Home and we don't expect to be producing anything larger then small arms and bullets for at least ten years." Said the manufacturing expert.

"And we are the Race, we are the most efficient and our plans are already well developed and smoothed out. Some big ugliest couldn't possibly be as efficient as we are and as such we will be ready far ahead of time." added an industrial planner "And we have already sent alerts out to the other worlds of the Empire to prepare for combat."

"And their deadline of 3 days to order the evacuation of Vantic 5?" inquired Emperor Risson "Why give us that deadline?"

"Our best guess, your majesty is in 3 days they will pull their ships back and begin to set everything up for a way, it is a deadline and if we cross it then everyone will have to waist the resources to start building a military." Said another expert

"Unless they have a standing military?" countered the head of the royal guards.

"Please, who would waist the resources with a standing military?" inquired the manufacturing expert. "All the resources that could be better used waisted with a standing military, personal that could be used in factories and in office space, land for bases and training that could be used for cities and public works. That isn't considering all the money wasted with a military and for what, unless they are out conquering what good is a military?"

"You are correct." said Emperor Risson which caused the manufacturing expert to be filled with pride. "I can't help but fear that these Tau'ri may have a standing military, they have forces on Vantic 5 they claim."

"Likely a small force similar to the palace guards, your majesty not enough to conquer a world." Defended the same expert

"Remind me in the ancient days before unity didn't the multiple empires which struggled for control of Home didn't they have standing militaries?" inquired Emperor Risson

"You are correct your majesty." Confirmed the Imperial Historian. "Standing militaries where common among waring Empires who fought for control of Home."

"And these Tau'ri claim that there are multiple other powers spread out across the galaxy, could we be looking at a similar situation that ancient home was but on a galactic scale?" inquired the Emperor, as his mind went to a place none of them had ever thought about. "So having a standing military would make sense for them."

"That is a horrify idea your majesty." admitted the expert

"Either way, we can't have them down here for a meeting with your Majesty." said the old Protocol Master "We are still in the process of searching the records for the proper process to hold a conference between two different powers. Since these Tau'ri refuse to show you the basic dignity by going through a normal Imperial Audience process we must take the time to find the way to do it right."

"I agree have you found anything yet?" inquired Risson

"We believe so, your majesty but the documents are old and we are in the process of translating them." stated the Protocol Master "Even after we translate it we will have to finish a search of the records to confirm that this is the proper and correct way to go about it."

"And what way does the records say?" inquired Risson

"Your majesty we are still in the middle of translating it, so I can't speak for certain but from the outside it appears very similar to a normal Imperial Audience only the diplomate doesn't have to admit they serve you and instead wish you peace." Explained the Protocol Master "There is talk also of a banner and their Imperial Song playing as they entire the audience hall. We have yet to learn all the details including where the banner joins the diplomat, when does the music start, what type of pole for the banner, the precise wording of the greetings and their responses. We have only an outline and we have yet to fill in the details."

"Very well, we will send what you learned to the Tau'ri Tosevites and see if these outlines are agreeable and that we are still working on the details." stated Risson "That should make them agree to push back this unreasonable deadline to something more reasonable, such as a year or two so that we can all do the proper research and planning."

 **After the better part of a day bring more and more equipment and soldiers to the field, the Race finally moved into an attack position**. As the defenders of Likna expected they came in at nightfall and only from one direction at first, the Opochti people had a natural day night cycle which was firmer then anything the Tau'ri had seen before, maybe because their eyes didn't work well in darkness or the fact that they had been a pre-electrical society that reinforced that. Either way they didn't handle the dark well. The Race had planned to use that to their advantage as they marched down the road toward the first roadblock. The old gate house and gate which had been there when the race conquered the city when they first arrived had been destroyed so only a simple roadblock of vehicles and pieces of rock and plasters which was the main building materials.

To the amazement of the race they took no fire as they climbed the barrier and moved into the city, they would have to wait for a bulldozer to clear the barrier. Once inside the walls they found themselves under one of those cloth covers which hung from the roofs of buildings on either side. It pitched the street into total darkness and had hidden it from the view of the race's airborne recon so they assumed a large force was there. They found nothing.

"By the emperor this is going to be easy they are all asleep." Said one of the police females as she moved into the city with a baton in hand and a pistol hanging on her belt. The race had sent in the police first not knowing who was inside and the police would pay first. They never noticed the open windows on the second floor of the houses on either side of the road, nor did they spot that among the bricks which littered the road to either side where thin brick shaped items on small stands.

"Would you like the honors?" said a Tau'ri special forces member as he handed the detonator to a young freedom fighter. They had shown the fighters earlier how it worked and while it was slightly harder for them because of the design of the box, the young fighter flicked the switch while depressing the button on top of the detonator. That sent a wireless broadcast to the small receivers built into the armed claymores which now lined either side of the road. With only milliseconds separating them all of them went off sending out bursts of explosion and countless tiny ball bearing out the air. The road became a death ground and the race had no way out, no one would have had time to escape as the ball berries flew into their flesh and even the light armor that the police had on was no use as they dropped like flies. The members of the Race still climbing the barrier had better luck, the ambush didn't get them at first but as the claymores went off, it didn't last long as the defenders opened up on them. The Opochti still getting used to their new weapons didn't always hit their targets but the amount of bullets flying that they found their marks. As the Race was swept from the streets, a team of Tau'ri rushed out of the bottom floor of the nearest building and moved toward the barrier but they didn't go over, they went into it.

Hidden within the barrier was a small clearing containing two heavy machine guns, the barrels of the guns poked just outside the barrier but blended in with the mass of the barrier as a whole. The Tau'ri machine gunners looked out of the vision slits which where covered with a thin mess to help them from being seen. What they saw was dozens of the Race, all of them on one knee or even standing up with their guns pointing up at the top of the roadblock where they believed the enemy would attack them. Since the Opochti only had simple firearms or arms stolen from the Race, they didn't respect the Opochti warriors and they didn't fear them so they stood in the open without a care in the world. They didn't know that the Tau'ri where now backing the Opochti people and they didn't know until it was too late about those two heavy machine guns.

The heavy machine guns spoke and tore into the Race cutting them down like wheat at harvest time. The survivors ran back under the fire of the machine guns which kept cutting them down until they where out of range before the fire stopped. With the first assault repulsed the race sent packing the battle for Likna had begun.

 **Well the battle of Likna has become, I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Now I would like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays. Now I will be taking a few days off so I will see you in 2018. Thanks Wilkins75.**


	19. Chapter 19

**Chapter 19 Battle of Likna Part 1**

The solders of the Race retreated under the five of heavy machine gun fire, that had caught them by surprise as they fell back. The machine guns stopped firing and only the moans of the wounded could be heard as those who hadn't been killed by the machine gun lied on ground.

"Medics forward." ordered the small unit commander closest to the attack line. With fear in their eyes the medics moved forward, along with their normal body paint which showed their rank they wore a the image of a bright green Leaf on the fronts and backs of their body armor. The green leaf was in truth a planet wide herb which had some healing effects and had been adopted as a symbol of doctors by the Vantic people. The Race had taken the symbol so that the Vantic wouldn't hurt medics and likewise the Race didn't shoot the Vantic doctors with the same mark on their wrappings. So they took no gunfire came as the medics moved forward to collect the wounded. Only when one of the medics tried to climb the barrier did a warning shot get fired straight up into the air.

"Stop, do not come over the barrier." said a voice in the darkness.

"I need to treat the wounded inside." hissed the Medic "I will not hurt you."

"There are no wounded inside, every member of the Race is dead." said a voice back as the Medic hissed in anger.

"You will pay for this and so will everyone inside this city." stated the medic

"Bring it on, we have more surprises for you." said the voice as the Medic pulled back.

 **Back at the lines the battlefield a Ship Lord of the Race glared at the roadblock through a pair of binoculars.** In the command structure of the Race a Ship Lord was equal in rank to an Admiral or a General in the Tau'ri command structure and had all the same duties. The only members of the Race a ship lord really had to listen to where higher ranking Ship Lords and the Fleet Lord in this case Straha and the Fleet Lord of the Colonization Fleet, Refet.

"So it would appear that they have gotten their claws on some of our weapons." Stated the Ship Lord

"Yes, superior sir what are your orders?" inquired his nearby aid

"Prepare a helicopter assault and land forces inside the city." ordered the Ship Lord "They may have a hardened outer shell like an egg but their interior will be weak and soft."

"Superior Sir, we had a situation only a short time ago where the terrorist shot down some of our attack helicopters." Advised the aid

"Yes, I am aware of that." said the Ship Lord as the Aid backed away in fear. "I do thank you for reminding me, we just finished a recount of all our weapons and none of the anti-vehicle rockets came up missing. So our choppers will be safe while they drop off our males."

"It shall be done." confirmed his aid as he went to carry out his orders. The helicopters where sitting just behind the lines on a grassy field, the males quickly got onboard and within minutes 10 helicopters took off and headed toward the darkened city.

"Here they come." said multiple Tau'ri on the walls of Likna, thanks to the night vision in each of their visor helmets they could see the choppers coming toward them. The choppers design was similar to the Soviet era Mil Mi-24 helicopter also known as the Hind, and like the Hind it carried troops as well as a lot of guns and rockets. The helicopters flew in low and without taking any fire at all, thanks to the thermal masking of the Tau'ri power armor and the sheets placed over the roadways the Race pilots saw no enemy to shot at as they headed toward the main market place.

"Too many wires running over the market place, we can't land here." reported the pilot of the first chopper as he looked at all the thick wires which crisscrossed over the large market square.

"We need to take the center market; can you land on the nearby buildings?" inquired the assault force leader on the first chopper.

"Yes, superior sir." confirmed the pilots as they choppers split off into five pairs, the pairs landed one at a time on the flat roofs of the local house. Each chopper let out 10 males of the race for a total of 100 males in the city. A few remained on over watch position on the roof while the rest of their team jumped down onto the flat patio which was common in the L shaped buildings which made up the city. The helicopters remained on over watch position as well but took no fire.

"Where are the crawlers?" inquired the head pilot as he scanned the area with eye turrets, but the city was totally dark.

 **Inside the buildings the Race, moved with a deserved and confirmed confidence, they had night vision goggles and the most advanced weapons on the planet.** They also had the training which no crawler could hope to match, they never saw it coming. From ten different locations spread out across the city ten surface to air missiles took flight. The Helicopters where too stationary to react in time to the missiles and each of the missiles found their targets turning them into burning wrecks which came crashing down. In the case of one of the choppers it came crashing down onto the very building which had the team they just dropped off. The chopper crashed and burst into flames killing all the males inside. Other choppers did come crashing down in the market squares or onto other buildings. The city was now aglow with fires but here the building material of the Opochti people helped the defenders. Using mud dried bricks and stones the buildings didn't burn easy and so the fires where contained almost at once.

The destruction of 10 choppers all at once caused the assaulting males of the race to look on in confusion. They had just lost 10 choppers, more then what they had lost during the entire conquest and now ten of them where burning wrecks. The 80 males of the race spread out in four different buildings, twenty in each had no idea what to do at first.

"Superior sir, what are our orders?" inquired a lower ranking male to the highest-ranking male in the buildings.

"Go outside clear the roadblocks so that…" started the male before he fell backwards as a bullet slammed into his body armor and then to the stunned amazement of the males of the race it exploded within him covering them with his blood and pieces of flesh. The walls where covered with his blood and pieces of him covered the ground, a large piece actually hung on the ceiling for a moment before falling down with a wet thump.

"By the Emperor?" asked one of the nearby males as he looked at a large bullet hole in the wall. Then another road came through that wall and hit him and exploded taking the leg and lower quarter off another male.

"BY THE EMPEROR!" yelled other males as they took cover as yet another road came through the wall and exploded in a male.

 **Outside the building they were in a Tau'ri SAS sniper pulled the trigger on a new handheld railgun sniper rifle.** The railgun rife was large by rifle standards and heavy, with a large power supply to send the round down range and it lacked anything close to rapid fire. It had the similar rate of fire as a bolt action rifle as it took time for the charge that would send the round down range to build it but it carried a lot more punch and the snipers where using it to shot clear through sniper team carried multiple power supplies for their rifles which had a habit of burning through rapidly **.** The rifle was still in the field-testing stages and each sniper team still had a 50-caliber sniper rifle for back up.

With a thermal scope she could see through the mud-brick walls of the houses see where the soldiers of the Race where hiding within. The rounds she was firing wasn't just normal round but instead had timed high explosive rounds built into the tip of the roads. The technology had been taken from the Colonials who designed it to take down Cylon Centurions and they worked perfectly well against the Race. Nearby other Tau'ri snipers where busy taking down the Race forces which had been allowed into the city but they purposely left some of them alive. They needed them alive to radio back that they where alive but trapped.

"Command, I have 8 members of the race pinned down." reported the SAS sniper "12 of them are KIA."

"Good, keep an eye on them and if they try to leave the building kill them." ordered Drugov over the radio.

"Understood command." Said the sniper as she cut the line and looked at targets she had within her window, she could kill any of them right now but she held off. So did the other snipers all of which watched their targets, they needed them alive and reporting back to their commanders. As long they where alive and trapped in the city it would make bombing runs and artillery by the Race into the city would be a risky move because of the risk of hitting their own trapped within.

 **Outside among the forces of the Race the ship lord in command of all forces around Likna, he had both his hands behind his back and glared at the fires burning in the nearby city**. It wasn't the fires which concerned him but the fact that those fires where funeral piles for 10 of his attack helicopters and now he had forces trapped within the city.

"So we will have to do this the hard way, order the land cruisers forward and beat them like the crawlers they are." ordered the Ship Lord

The land cruisers of the Race, what the Tau'ri would call tanks moved forward, while the bulk of the armor was concentrated on the main road and the main roadblock other columns headed toward each of the three other gates.

"Here they come." said Drugov as he stood on the wall by the main gate, the gate wasn't really a gate and the large stone gatehouse which had once stood there had been torn down by the Race for the highway. Instead a roadblock had been put in place, part of the mud dried bricks and stones which made up that roadblock and others came from a house and others which had been torn down by their owners. They had torn down the house and others across the city so that 16 vehicles working in pairs could go to work.

Drugov turned toward Prince Unia who was transfixed by the first vehicle coming up from a hidden Tok'ra tunnel. The Tau'ri had placed multiple Tok'ra tunnels across the city allowing troops to move rapidly and providing a safe spot for any wounded or retreating forces. It also allowed the vehicles and other equipment the Tau'ri had brought in to remain hidden until the time was right. The first vehicle looked similar to a land cruiser only it didn't have a gun. Instead it had this large folded item on top of it. Prince Unia watched as the thing unfolded and formed a ramp up to the top of the wall.

"In truth, those things are designed for crossing rivers not making ramps but it works." explained Drugov as the tortoise bridging vehicle moved back and allowed the Alligator light armored vehicle to roll up. In truth he wished he could bring up Leopard main battle tanks and use them, but incline was too much for the Leopard to use with no real support under the ramp. The Alligator was lighter armored and had a less powerful weapon but still was more than enough to do the job. At each of the four gates, two Alligators went up ramps on either side of the gate and going haul down so that only their turrets with their new railguns.

Each of the Alligators turned their railguns on the advancing columns of tanks from the Race, now the railguns which had become small enough to fit on a single combat vehicle didn't have the range of their larger counterparts built into the warships of the Tau'ri fleet due to the fact they didn't have access to the large power sources which could fit on a warship but not currently in a vehicle. It was still much more advanced then the first-generation rail guns which used to have to be moved around in multiple semi-truck sized trailers.

Inside the Alligators the crews looked out over the walls with high power sensors which turned night into day and automatically gave the range for their targets.

"Anti-armor rounds." ordered each of the commanders in the alligators as the weapon's officer down below in the crew compartment made sure the ammo belt was in the right position. The Alligator carried two main ammo types for their railgun, the Anti-armor rounds which where designed to take down light armor and vehicles which contained a metal dart about a foot long contained inside a sabot to fit the barrel. The other rounds where anti-personal rounds which where the same basic design a metal dark inside a sabot but the dart was only 3 inches long.

"Now we wait." said the gunner as he lined up on the nearest Race Tank. All along the walls smaller towed guns where being unmasked and moved into a firing position and machine guns prepared to open up on the oncoming foot soldiers.

 **Elsewhere in the city of Likna barrels where lifting from concealed self-propelled guns located in the side markets spread out around the city.** Using information gathered by the flying drones the guns turned their barrels to the right angle to take down their assigned targets. Their targets where not the artillery of the Race but instead the tracking radar which where located in special trucks. With them destroyed any Race counter attack would be unorganized random fire. The ranges and targets also went down to the dozens of mortar teams spread out across the city. Some of them where in backyards and courtyards of homes while others shared the markets with the heavier guns. Here the Tau'ri and the Opochti worked together again. With the Opochti carrying the shells to each of the mortar tubes, this turned out to be an easier task for them it was for regular Tau'ri because with 4 legs they where less likely to trip while carrying a shell. All the defenders held their breath and waited as the Race played right into their hands.

The multiple drones which where monitoring the battle didn't just broadcast their information back to command but to the Military headquarters on Earth. From there they handed the "semi" live video to the multiple news outlets. It wasn't a pure live feed but with a 90 second delay, from there it went to Valhalla and Lanagara on a slightly longer delay due to travel time of the broadcast over the multiple broadcast stations spread out across Tau'ri space. It even went to the 12 colonies of Kobol got the broadcast even if it was delayed even more.

 **Watching the broadcast from the food court of their resort the movement of the Tau'ri military was of passing interest to Acacia and Medea, both of them where more focused on the cinnamon flavored pancakes which they got at the breakfast bar.** Cinnamon was not something found in the colonies and was beloved by a lot of colonials, only when the pancakes where about done did Medea take note of the TVs which showed the battle of Likna.

"Robert, I don't recognize those vehicles." said Medea as she pointed toward the vehicle on the screen.

"Alligators, they are pretty new." stated Robert "Was still in the final testing stages when we invaded, the railgun had some issues. Had a habit of jamming and burning through the Naquadah power cells very fast. They fixed it but too late to be used in the invasion."

"Railgun? Those are the things that shot a metal rode insanely fast right? Before the war, word was that the military was working on that for anti-cylon defense." inquired Medea as Robert nodded his head.

"Standard on our ships and some fixed AA guns, Alligator is the first time we put it on a vehicle. Word is that they have a sniper rifle version and are working on a machine gun and possibly battle rifle rail gun to replace the SIR-15s but those are rumors." Stated Robert "Not sure how long that would take to design, power and ammo burn through are issues I have been told. Railguns burn through a lot of ammo very fast and if you have to carry multiple power cells that is less ammo you can carry."

"Why not energy weapons? You have them." advised Acacia as she remembered watching news showing the Tau'ri warships blowing up the Colonial navy. "Your tank…the Lion has one and it has shields too."

"Energy weapons aren't as good as you think, we had an enemy called the Replicators." explained Robert as he pulled out his phone and showed the two colonials an image of a robotic spider. "They almost crushed the Asgard which gave us a lot of the technology we used against you because they were immune to energy weapons, but bullets worked very well."

"Are they still around?" inquired Acacia

"No, the same technology that we used against Caprica City with the Ragnorak was used against the Replicators before they could conquer the galaxy." explained Robert as he looked up at the screens. "Looks like the Marines are luring in the Race; those Railguns are already in range."

"Marines, maybe it's the army?" countered Medea as Robert shook his head.

"No, the marines are the ones who generally use the Alligators. Maybe because of the speed or the fact that it is amphibious not sure? But if Alligators are on world then you can bet that somewhere nearby is a column of two of Leopard main battle tanks are lurking somewhere." explained Robert as he checked his watch. "You two ready?"

"Sure, lets go have some fun." Said Acacia as they stood up to leave.

 **The upcoming military action was being watched much closer by the heads of the Colonial military forces, almost every TV screen in the rebuilt colonial military operation center was watching the broadcasts coming out of this world.**

Admiral William Adama monitored the events and compared them to what he knew about the Tau'ri military strategy. A strategy which the remaining Colonial Military planners which had lived through the war was still trying to wrap their minds around. The Tau'ri had rewritten the rules of war for the Colonials and he felt no pity for this Race as they charged toward the defending Tau'ri.

"So what do you think will happen?" inquired President Roslin as she moved to stand beside him.

"Madam President, the Tau'ri are going to toy with them for a while and then punch them so hard that they will fall within moments." explained Admiral Adama as he crossed his hands behind his back. "The Tau'ri military doesn't have to build up like they did when they faced us and likely they are more focused on how to do this operation as quickly as possible with the least number of forces needed to finish the mission."

"I see, I just don't understand why the Tau'ri are attacking this world?" added Roslin "I know that they claim that they want to liberate this world from the oppression of the Race and the images they showed of these lizards things taking children is clearly a reason to go to war but I can't help but think there is something more."

"Likely there is but we are limited based on what we know." confirmed Adama with frustration in his voice. "We don't even have a map of the other powers in the galaxy, for all we know the Tau'ri want this world to set up a defense line for Earth from another power. We simply don't know and that is what really worries me. The Tau'ri wouldn't be putting all these forces into battle unless this world provided something major they wanted."

"I would ask what our spies has found but I know who well we have been in breaking into the Tau'ri computer systems and decoding their communications." Said Roslin with a sigh, so far, the peak of their intelligence department had been the ability to hack into the Tau'ri live broadcast system. The Tau'ri where broadcasting everything to the colonials but with about a 5-minute delay so that they had time to edit the broadcast to avoid giving the Colonials information. The biggest information scope they had gained from almost a year of challenging work had been finding out the Tau'ri sports scores about 5 minutes before the rest of the colonies.

"How did the members of the Quorum take the news about Tau'ri school accreditation and scholarships?" inquired Adama as the President let out a sigh.

"Better then I actually expected." Admitted Roslin "What was strange was while the Sagittarian delegation was screaming their heads off the Gememon delegation was actually for it. They wanted to make it optional for schools but that was all they wanted, and I think I will give them that."

"I am not that surprised." Laughed Adama as Roslin lifted an eyebrow at him. "Gememon may try to be all religious like Sagittarian but a look at the broadcast channels show that Gememon had the 3rd highest percentage of Tau'ri broadcast watchers behind only Aquaria and Libran."

"The Tau'ri are conquering us." Whispered Roslin with a sigh. "We fought a pointless war, lost 75 million people for what? We wanted to be in command of the Tau'ri and in the end it will be them in command of us."

"It could have been worse." Said Adama as Roslin looked at him. "From what we know, the Cylons where only months away from attacking and with that computer virus our entire fleet would have been disabled at a push of a button. The Cylons wouldn't have shown mercy they would have turned every world into lifeless nuclear husks. Compared to that future, we may have actually came out ahead."

"Maybe." Admitted Roslin as she checked her watch. "I better go, I have to visit a hospital with our soon to be second lady."

"Well at least she will get all the questions, her and Baltar's wedding is how far off now?" inquired Adama

"Three months and she is going to announce the dress designer on live TV next week." said Roslin with a roll of her eyes. The media was focused on the wedding and almost nothing else.

"Maybe that is when you should announce the Tau'ri school agreement, let it get buried in the news." Advised Adama as Roslin nodded her head in agreement.

 **The males of the Race moved forward down the roads toward the holes in the large stone walls which surrounded the city of Likna.** The males where slightly more concerned then normal, they had seen the machine guns cut down the police which went in first. That was concerning but a terrorist getting their claws on a machine gun in a world full of military forces was troublesome but not unsurprising. Then the helicopters where shot down and that was an eye turret opening surprise.

"Remember, our job is to protect the land cruiser, if they come near the cruiser kill them." Ordered the head of the squad as they moved behind the third land cruiser in the attack line. There mission was to protect the land cruiser's side and rear from any crawler which try to attack the war machine in the thinner armored sides or rear. Suddenly the boom of artillery could be heard over the stillness of the night.

"Superior sir? I thought we weren't using artillery because of the risk of…." started one of the males only to drop to the ground when massive explosions happened behind them. "By the Emperor what was that?"

"No idea." admitted the commander as he turned to look at the massive stone wall as he did the entire length of the wall became a glow with muzzle flashes. There was just enough time for the soldiers of the race eyes to widened as rounds began to slam into them. It wasn't just normal bullets which would bounce off the armor or even the larger round cannon balls that some of the Vantic had been using when they conquered them. A few luckily hits had disabled land cruisers then this was something totally different. Land cruisers where being ripped apart as multiple rounds slammed into the land cruisers and troop carriers. It was unlike anything the males of the race had ever seen, each of the land cruisers where being hit by multiple rounds tearing into them like giant machine gun rounds only these cut through the armor of the land cruisers like flesh.

"By the Emperor what is going on!" yelled multiple males as they began shooting back toward the walls. Now machine gun fire was coming in as well and it was a lot of fire and the only protection the soldiers had was the now burning wrecks of land cruisers and infantry carriers. Those where now burning and the ammo cooking off sending turrets flying and smoke rings coming out of hatches. The crews inside had no chance to get out and mixed in with the sound of ammo cooking off was the smell of cooking meat.

"We have to pull back!" yelled another male as a screeching sound filled the air. Then the mortar rounds hit and the battlefield turned into a blood bath as they race was torn apart by the incoming fire. Males where sent flying through the air as the mortar bombs landed among them, by now more artillery rounds where landing among the field guns of the race causing them to explode one by one.

 **On the city walls the Alligators fired their railguns as fast as possible tearing into the race, the machine gunners and smaller towed guns pouring in their fire at the race.** Prince Unia had never seen such a display of power against the Race, he remembered when the armies of the City nations went out to do battle against the invaders from beyond the stars.

The Race had destroyed every army no matter how large it was with ease. Cities fell one by one until only Nysha remained, his home and then they took that. He had to escape down a hidden tunnel with a handful of guards while the rest sold their lives to allow him to escape. The Race had declared victory after that day and while he and his fighters had stung them they had never been able to really hurt them, the Race were unstoppable monsters. Now the monsters where being slaughtered by the Tau'ri and this was just a small force the main force was still building in the woods.

He knew that the Tau'ri weren't doing this just because they where pure good, they wanted things from his people however what they wanted was strange. They wanted Jina Metal or as they called it Zephry, they claimed it was a rare impossible find metal but that was hard to believe when Jina metal was so common, that it was used for almost everything from belt buckles to door hinges. The Tau'ri wanted the metal and if they kept their word they would trade for it not take it by force then it was a good deal for his people. Prince Unia nodded his head, his word freedom from the Race and help rebuilding and in return they agreed to a trade deal with the Tau'ri that was more then fair. At the moment he was engrossed in the massive defeat that was happening to the Race.

"Pull back!" yelled the Tau'ri beside him, Drugov as the Alligators which where spitting death nearby suddenly stopped firing and backed down the ramps that the Tau'ri had set up. Even the towed guns which the Tau'ri had set up moved down smaller ramps to the animal teams which would pull them back deeper into the city. The machine guns kept their firer going but the lack of fire couldn't help but be noticed.

"Why are you pulling back?" yelled Prince Unia as suddenly the wall right below where the Alligator had been exploded as a Race shell slammed into it. Seconds later other parts of the wall began to take hits as the Land cruisers back out of the killing zone opened up with their guns at long range. The Race's artillery began to fire as well bringing death down on the wall.

"We don't have enough guns here to stop their artillery which is why we waited for them to get in close strike and pull back before they can bring shells down upon us." stated Drugov as he showed those white teeth that the Tau'ri had, they called it a smile. "Now we bring them in and then we grab them by the belt."

"What?" inquired Prince Unia as they moved off the wall, the Tau'ri machine gunners where still laying down fire as their mortar teams began to deploy smoke between them and the Race line.

"The Race has fields guns and air power, we can counter the air power with our anti-air and our smaller amount of field guns can begin to take down their guns but still we need to get in close and grab them by the belt so that they can't bring their air power and their artillery into the fight." Explained Drugov as they reached the slopped tunnel which lead down into the network of tunnels made by the Tau'ri. The Alligator was already there and the turtle was rolling down there was well the ramp back on its body. "This is just the opening moments and believe me."

The race began to pound the walls but the Tau'ri and Opochti had pulled back so that all the Race ended up doing was making a lot of noise and wrecking a stone wall which had been cleared out. All the while the Tau'ri and the Opochti fell back to the next line and awaited them.

 **Watching the soldiers who occupied her home die on mass with pure joy on her face was Finia, she like every other refugee that the Tau'ri had brought to this magical city watched the destruction of the Race.** They watched it on the large screens which showed moving pictures, the Race had a version of it but the Tau'ri called it TV. She like so many of other of her people cheered when they watched the machines of the Tau'ri destroy the unstoppable Race.

"I can't believe it." Yelled Finia as the Tau'ri mowed down the Race with ease. She had nothing but thankfulness for the Tau'ri, they had shown nothing but kindness to her and her people. Yes, they did make some mistakes mostly when it came to telling each of them apart. She didn't really understand why the Tau'ri had all the trouble telling males from females, she had a pointed triangle shaped face compared to the rounder face of a male and her body was longer. It was clear to anyone but yet the Tau'ri had trouble with that. Then she thought about it and realized that she had trouble telling the male and female Tau'ri apart, she only knew that generally the Tau'ri females where shorter and had fleshly mounds on their chests.

That small fault was more then made up for in their kindness, they had given then toys, food, clothing, beds and most of all safety from their enemies. They wanted for nothing, they had unlimited access to food and the Tau'ri had hot and cold waters that came out of taps like the race. The Tau'ri did limit their freedoms to some extent, they couldn't roam the city and the area of the large park beside the stadium they where in had an assigned area for them. Tau'ri police moved through the crowds of refugees and settled any issues that came up. Tau'ri aid workers moved through helping with anything that they could and one of the aid workers had taught the children a game called soccer which the children had picked up fast.

"Thank you…" cried a woman behind Finia as she turned to see one of the Tau'ri medical personal, dressed in white handing over a birthing sack to a female.

"No problem." Said the Tau'ri, they wore a slightly different version of the Tau'ri helmet which had a much more open visor showing her entire face and was perfectly see through.

"If I may ask, how…how do you know this is my young? The Race kidnapped him." Said the female.

"I assure you this is your child, the Race kept records and we confirmed it using your DNA and comparing it to a sample of the child's." Explained the female "This is your daughter."

"Daughter?" inquired the female

"Sorry, I didn't mean to reveal the gender." Apologized the Tau'ri "Please forgive me."

"That is ok, you brought my…daughter back. If I can ask what is your name maybe I will name her after the female who brought her to me." Said the mother clearly caring more about the fact that her child was back then anything else.

"Samantha O'Neill." Introduced the Tau'ri

"Samantha O'Neill, strange name but it will work." said the woman

"Well O'Neill is my last name; my first name is Samantha." explained Samantha

"You have a last name, only nobles have last names." exclaimed the women in amazement.

"It used to be that way but now we all have last names." explained Samantha "Likely in time your people will gain last names as well, maybe they should get them already but first from everything we have know your baby is alright and is totally healthy."

"Good, very good and thank you once again." Said the woman as the Tau'ri medical personal left and headed back to wherever she had come from. Finia looked up toward what she had been told were called sky boxes which surrounded the large area which was normally the playing area. The boxes had some Tau'ri in it along with some of her kind. Her eyes locked on one of the boxes, there was a Opochti but she wore no cloths and instead stood there in body paint of the Race.

"She is a traitor, they took her when she was helping process us into the camps." Explained one of the kids her own age as he followed her gaze toward the figure watching the giant screen like everyone else. "The Tau'ri should have pulled a blade and take her head but they took her prisoner instead."

"I see." said Finia as she noticed a Tau'ri walking up to the prisoner, this one was wore the white armor of a Tau'ri medical officer.

 **Kassquit glared at the massive screen at the other end of the stadium with pure hate in her eyes, she watched in horror as the males of the Race where slaughtered by the Tau'ri.**

"Kassquit, if I may ask what do you remember before the conquest?" inquired what the Tau'ri called a Doctor. The doctor wore white which was the wrong color for a medical officer, it should have been red that was the proper color for a medical officer. "If I understand it correctly you Opochti have a very long-life span and that children your age should remember clearly what life was like before the conquest."

"I am a citizen of the Empire and you are imprisoning me against my will. I demand to be freed at once and returned to my people." snapped Kassquit

"Well your people believe you are a traitor now tell me how does that make you feel?" inquired the Doctor.

"They are primitives and you are preventing them embracing the light of the Emperor and the glory of the Race." stated Kassquit "The Empire can't be stopped, they are the most advanced and powerful civilization in the universe."

"No, they are not because if they where they would be winning right now." countered the Doctor as Kassquit turned her attention back to the screen on the far end of the stadium. It now showed the race blowing up the wall with a massive display of firepower which confirmed her point.

"Look again." Countered Kassquit with as she watched what the military force of the Empire was doing. Then it showed a replay showing that the Tau'ri and the Vantic terrorist pulling back before the shelling began, so the Race was doing next to nothing. That was bad enough then it changed to show a fleet of orbiting Home, the Tau'ri already had forces in place to strike into the heart of the Empire. "You aren't fighting fair, the Empire did nothing to you and yet you are attacking it for no reason."

"And the Empire never threatened your world, but they conquered and enslaved it like it did to the other worlds they control and they wanted to do the same to us but we aren't what they expected." countered the Doctor "We are coming to liberate your home world, from the Race after they came to conquer us. That is more then enough reasons to fight the Empire. Now that I have answered some of your questions please answer mine, what do you remember of the Conquest. You would have been around 7 or so by our scale considering your people live around a 150 of our years naturally."

"I remember watching those who had caused me nothing but harm dyeing on mass and I loved it." Growled Kassquit the happy memories coming back to her as the squad of the Race stormed the market she was in.

"Do you remember your name?" inquired the Doctor

"I had no name, I was a lot number. I was a slave sold multiple times until the Race found me and treated me like one of them owns and raised me." stated Kassquit with anger in her voice. "The Race gave me a name and culture. They would have started with a newly hatched crawler, but they wanted to see if the current generation could be cultured so I was chosen."

"I see." Said the Doctor "I was unaware of slavery on your world."

"You people are helping slavers, how does that make you feel?" inquired Kassquit, she was a junior researcher, so she was going to try to turn it on her.

"Considering my ancestors were brought to Haiti as slaves, not well but we got rid of slavery on Earth and we defeated a group of Empires which had enslaved trillions of souls across the galaxy." countered the Doctor as she paused for a moment as an idea entered her head. "Kassquit would you be up to take a little trip if I can arrange it?"

"Yes." said Kassquit

"Give me a few minutes maybe I can better convince you about the situation your Empire is face." stated the Doctor, true to her word a few minutes later and under guard she was lead out of the building where a strange craft was waiting for them. They board, and the aircraft took off and headed up, to Kassquit amazement she could look out the window of the aircraft and see the dark void of space but she wasn't weightless. They rode in next to silence before a world came into view, it had a massive blue ocean covering the Northern third of the planet with greens and a few browns in the mostly land southern 2/3rds. The aircraft, Owl she had learned in her flight dove back down into the atmosphere of Mars before coming in for a landing. When the back ramp opened she let out a series of load clicking scream which was her native biology sneaking out. A member of the Race would have let out a hiss but either way what was before her was planet shattering.

Before moving around was thousands of Tau'ri, some of them with weapons and some without but all of them had that power armor on. She looked around, she was in the middle of a military base and a large one of that. She could see rows of Land Cruisers each one looking much more powerful then the version the Race used sat in a vehicle pool, a nearby runway had killer crafts and bombers all with ground crews looking over them. One of them a narrow-framed aircraft with short wings with missiles and a snout mounted machine gun took off like a Helicopter but without the spinning blades over it.

"Welcome to one of our bases." Said the Doctor as she leads Kassquiet around, each thing she saw caused fear to rise within her. She passed close to one of those Land Cruisers and a group of Tau'ri males and females came running past her in formation, none of them had power armor on but wore large packs on their backs and carried rifles.

"Why are those not wearing the armor like the others?" inquired Kassquit

"New recruits going through basic, power armor may be a staple now but we still train without it just like we do training without any of our technology so that we don't become to dependent on it." Explained the Doctor as they moved past an area where Tau'ri soldiers where training in hand to hand combat, some with power armor some without. Then the real horror, she saw a large group of Tau'ri gathered around another Tau'ri with a holographic display. She watched without understanding then she noticed that each of the images showed where weapons of the Race.

"You already have a military, why would you waste all the resources on that?" stated Kassquit

"Because the Universe is not a peaceful place, we have been at war multiple times and a standing military is what all great powers have to defend themselves. The Empire should consider itself luckily if it had fallen inside the territory of another one of the powers they would have been attacked long ago and if the Goa'uld had found them before they were defeated, the Race would have been enslaved." explained the Doctor "Now would you like to help and maybe save your Empire?"

"I will do anything in the service of the Empire." Stated Kassquit

"From what I have been told, your leadership doesn't seam to understand that we have a standing military." stated the Doctor as Kassquit looked toward the nearby road, a long column of Land Cruisers, tanks she had been told they call them, infantry carriers, infantry and other vehicles of war. From her location she could see what had to be thousands of warriors and this was just a single base on a single world. "The Empire doesn't seam to realize that they are tangling with possibly the strongest power in this galaxy and who controls 20% of this galaxy with a strong outpost in another galaxy. They need to be made aware of this and that time is all but out, if we have to this soldiers could soon find themselves fighting not only on Vantic 5 but every world in your Empire including Home. Your Empire is facing destruction and they don't seam to understand, maybe a citizen of the Empire who is not a member of the Race can convince them otherwise. If I can clear it with command how would you like to be the one to deliver the message?"

"I will return to Vantic 5 at any time." stated Kassquit as the Doctor shook her head.

"Not Vantic 5, we can't have you warning the military leaders there." stated the Doctor "However Home is possible."

 **Fleet Lord Straha was not pleased not in anyway as his driver parked his car and he moved toward the Ship Lord who was currently commanding the assault on Likna.**

"Ship Lord Binia." Snapped Straha as the Ship Lord and lower ranking officers snapped to attention as Straha entered the command tent.

"Exulted Fleet Lord, I was preparing a report about the actions and was about to transmit it back to you for your review." explained Binia as the Ship Lord looked at the Fleet Lord.

"I have seen the video captured by our news reporters and our people have seen the burning wrecks of our Land Cruisers and our dead males. Now explain to me how crawlers could possibly do that?" inquired Straha, his question was totally understandable but there was venom in his voice.

"Exulted Fleet Lord, we don't know we have reports of strange fire coming from eight locations two at each road leading into the city and we have confirmed artillery coming in from the city." explained Ship Lord Binia

"So you are telling me that the crawlers got artillery?" inquired Fleet Lord Straha, his answer came when a shell came in nearby and blew a Race gun up. "I see, radar tracking?"

"Destroyed in the first attack, we have more on the way." explained Ship Lord Binia

"Good, send in the males and take the city." ordered Shraha

"Exulted Fleet Lord forgive me but we needed more guns and weapons up here before we take the city." stated Ship Lord Binia

"More are coming but we need to take this city before the deadline that terrorist Unia, we already have reports of riots and increase terror attacks around the world. We need to crush this rebellion once and for, this is their last chance and we will crush it. The longer this fight goes on the more the riots spreads around the world." Explained Straha "So send in the Males, when reinforcements arrive they will come in behind them."

"It shall be done." Confirmed Ship Lord Binia as he turned toward a lower ranking male and repeated the order. Within moments squads of males rushed forward toward the walls, they expected to take fire but no fire came in as they moved forward. They reached the walls taking no fire at all, within minutes the first males breached the roadblocks and entered the city of Likna not knowing that it was just the Opochti freedom fighters in there but the Tau'ri wolves were waiting for them.

 **Well I hope you had a good New Years and that if you are on the East Coast of the United States you aren't freezing too much. Now I hope you enjoyed this chapter and the opening moments of this conflict. I know this will please a lot of you but I have already started work on the next sequel to this, the Mass Effect/Stargate story and you can find hints in this chapter and others of elements that I will be bringing into that story. Now until next time please keep reading. Thanks Wilkins75.**


	20. Chapter 20

**Chapter 20 Battle of Likna Part 2**

The soldiers of the Race moved over what remained of the outer wall, the massive wall which had taken over a life time of the locals to make had been flattened in some places flat by the artillery and guns of the land cruisers. The night vision equipment that the advanced teams of the race wore made everything a red tint, the sources of light glowing a brighter almost white red and it was a little blurry in nature. Sharp lines where fuzzy and not perfectly clear but it allowed them to move and fight at night, so it was acceptable. They moved from cover to cover as they advanced but they took no fire as they moved toward the first line of the homes. They moved into the homes and unlike in earlier battles they found no crawlers hiding in cellars or still asleep in their beds. Even as the first teams headed in, they couldn't help but feel that in the dark where eyes looking at them.

They were not wrong, Tau'ri special forces had moved forward with their own night vision piercing the darkness far better then the Race version. The Tau'ri version showed everything in a shade of green, green being the color best seen by the human eye in the dark just like red was the color seen best in the dark by the Race. The Tau'ri used the twisting network of back allies and side routes that moved around the city like a maze with the main roads crossing through them. They moved forward using their equipment to scout ahead, they had not only life sign detectors and cameras on the barrels of their guns to check corners but also no less then five drones monitoring the movement of the Race.

The race moved into the homes while others moved down the street toward the next roadblock and some fanned out into the back maze-like ally ways. That is when the Tau'ri began to counter attack, using suppressed weapons and aiming around corners with the cameras attached to the barrel of their guns. The Race in the alleyways where starting to drop and yet their counterparts in the main street didn't even know that they where already under attack.

A crashing sound from behind the race caused a few of them to turn an eye turret toward the roadblock just in time to see the plow of a bulldozer push through the barrier. Moments later the first land cruiser went through the gap in the roadblock, with armor surrounded by more troops they moved forward. The massive barrels of the land cruisers ready to destroy any home that gave them a fight and heavy machine gun ready to aid the infantry. The nearest roadblock was a little off and the gunner on the land cruiser fired a high explosive shell into the roadblock to break it up. This happened in four points along the main roads which meet together in a large center market square. It was just what the Tau'ri wanted and they waited, right when the lead land cruiser reached the second roadblock did the anti-armor mine located along the road under the barrier blew. The mine so powerful that it blew the top of the turret of the first tank to reach the mined barrier. The body of the tank now made a barrier which was impassable by the following tanks and infantry carriers. Seconds after the lead tank blew up a Tau'ri solider armed in an anti-vehicle rocket launcher set up on the roof near each of the 4 main roads. The operators worked at the controls selecting a diving attack before locking on to the land cruiser currently sitting in the first roadblock the one leading out of the city. The soldiers of the Race never noticed him or any of his counterparts across the city.

The missiles fired at different times but close enough to make no difference as the missiles shot up in a high arch before diving down in a deadly attack to hit their targets from above where the armor would be weakest. When the rear vehicle blew up in the middle of the roadblock it trapped the armor of the Race within the city. It was now time for the Opochti to rejoin the fight, the Opochti where did not like the dark they couldn't see well and that was why the Tau'ri had taken up the bulk of the night fighting. The Opochti freedom fighters where being led through the back allies with glow sticks attached to the back of their armor so that the Opochti they were leading could follow. The Tau'ri fighters could have done this task themselves much easier but this was Opochti's city, their world and their fight.

Each of the Opochti fighters carried either RPGs or AK series assault rifles, they moved toward the back of some of houses the Tau'ri fighters going in first to take down any Race solders in there clearing it out. With suppressed rifles they cleared out the Race with ease from the assigned houses, the Opochti fighters moved toward the windows on the second floor.

"We need lights." ordered the Tau'ri commander of the area as moments later bright burning white flare shot up by mortar teams inside the city. The four bright sources of light now shinning over the four main roads turning the dark night into as bright as day. The suddenly brightness caused the night vision goggles worn by the race to turn bright red, it was a blinding red which caused all of them to rip off the goggles, the Tau'ri helmet adapted at once so there was nothing to prevent the Tau'ri soldiers from taking aim. The bright light illuminated the field for the Opochti in the houses and in the side streets, the light was also a sign for them and as they opened fire with their new weapons. RPG rockets slammed down into the Race vehicles and while they were no were near the equal to the new Tau'ri weapons they were more than enough to take on the Race. The trapped land cruisers and infantry carriers began to blow up as the AK rounds slammed into the soldiers of the Race. The Opochti fired almost randomly into the streets, the Tau'ri special forces who had much more experiences where dropping the soldiers of the Race.

The Race caught on streets taking fire from three sides tried to fight back and take cover but there was no place to hide. They where taking fire from three sides so they couldn't take cover behind armor, they bursts into houses only to get blown away with Tau'ri armed with automatic shotguns and Opochti with AKs waiting for them. It was a blood bath all the way back to the first roadblock, the closer to the roadblock the less Tau'ri and freedom fighters who had taken up positions there. Soldiers of the Race where still able to climb over the barrier to come into the fight. They formed a base of fire and began to trade fire with their enemies.

"How is this possible?" inquired almost every male of the Race as they took automatic fire which was at least the match the fire they put out. More males where dropping here then what had likely happened in the entire conquest of the planet. "How did the crawlers get so many of our weapons?"

"No idea." said another male as a sniper dropped a nearby officer. "And how did they get the ammo and training?"

"Get on the radio, we need air support and we need land cruisers and more troops." ordered the small unit commander to the radio operator who got on the line.

 **Unaware of the fight that was happening on a distance world Kara Thrace moved around her viper, the viper she planned to win a job training pilots all the while getting paid by the people she was shooting about a year earlier.** She moved her hand down the metal skin of the viper, it wasn't the most advanced viper she had ever been in, in fact it was primitive. No advanced electronics, just a simple Dradis system and the bird had no missiles under the wings only extra gun pods raising the total to 3 cannons and 2 heavy machine guns. It was a bird designed to be operated in the field with simple tools and on worlds with societies who could maybe make the ammo for the bird. The only thing that really made her bird stand out was the green paint on the tail and large strips on the wings.

A roar of engines filled the air as Kara turned toward the nearby runway just in time to see the darken shape of Tau'ri Eagle fighter shooting off in the darkness before lifting off the ground the glow of its engines visible in the predawn darkness. Seconds later another fighter roared past, followed by another and another. She let out a sigh as knowing that she would have to wait a little to tangle with the cocky Eagle Pilots. She couldn't even blame the Tau'ri pilots for their cockiness, each of the Eagles had multiple Viper kills painted on their bird. She saw one of the Eagles with what had to be over 20 kills in vipers alone plus marks for kills with birds shaped like none she had ever seen before.

Red and Blue squadrons would be tangle with those Eagles first and then when they where lining up to land, Green and Yellow squadrons would take off to tangle with the Eagles. Since she was in Green Squadron she had to wait for her turn. Even so she already knew how the opening moments of the battle would play out, the Tau'ri had told them the set up and she didn't like it. The Tau'ri fighters will have the high ground and dive on the defenders from positions in orbit. The defenders in Vipers will have to go slow them down. She hated this set up because it gave the Tau'ri too many advantages but the Tau'ri report they had to read exampled that was the most likely situation that the pilots they where going to train would have to deal with. Raiders and slavers showing up in orbit and attack their world calling on them to fly up to defend their homes, that was what the men and women they would be training would have to deal with so that is what the Tau'ri where testing them on.

She let out a sigh and looked over at her wingman Justinian, the young pilot was talking over with some other young pilots. She was among the oldest pilots here, most of the ones she had known had either not made it through the war or had decided not to attempt to get one of the jobs. She listened for a moment as Justinian shared his war story of shooting up a column of tanks with his heavy machine cannon and as he pulled up getting taken in the side by a Tau'ri aircraft firing its gun. He failed to add that it was a ground attack bird. Starbuck looked away and noticed that a Tau'ri ground crew was nearby working on one of those Ospreys. She walked over to them and got almost right behind the crew before she was noticed.

"Is there something I can help you with?" inquired the ground chief "Your vipers should all be ready already."

"They are good, but I have a question." inquired Kara as the chief looked at her. "I know you can't give me details but how does this bird compare to a Viper?"

"Why do you ask?" inquired the chief

"I have a wingman shot down by one these and I want to know how bad he is." explained Kara

"I see, well I guess it doesn't really matter." said the Chief "Speed wise they are even with the slight edge going to the Osprey here. In a turning fight, the Osprey has your viper beat in atmosphere where you can't use your little maneuvering jets as effective but in space your viper would have the edge."

Kara blinked she had assumed that the Osprey was similar to a Raptor in speed to find that the Tau'ri ground aircraft was an equal in speed to the Vipers was amazing to her. She had to admit Vipers where designed to fight in space and the maneuvering jets didn't work well in atmosphere.

"Did your wingman get shot down by a missile or a gun?" inquired a mechanic working nearby "Because these birds carry the same missiles as the Eagle and has the same radar stealth paint on it?"

"Gun." Answered Kara "Shot down by the machine gun on this bird."

"Machine gun." Laughed the mechanic as he picked something up and handed it to Kara who looked at the size of the round before her. It was at least double the size of the rounds on her viper and her eyes traced from the massive round in her hand to the rotating gun barrel sticking out under the nose this bird. "This gun and spit out over 4,000 rounds per minute, so imagine how you would do if your bird was hit with those rounds when every third one was either high explosives our armor piercing. That would take down even an Eagle, we have a few Osprey pilots here that are aces in their own right."

"I see." stated Kara as she imagined if she could stay up with multiple rounds like this in her bird.

"Starbuck where are you?" yelled Justinian in the distance as Kara let out a sigh, maybe getting shot down by this thing was acceptable but he still drove her crazy.

 **The killer crafts roared down the runway at the nearby base and turned and with a roar flew over the capital of Vantic 5 and toward Likna.** The flight heading out of the base was noted by Tau'ri operators thanks to their radar systems and the drones which where monitoring the airbase and the infantry/tank base which sat across a large highway from the base. The Race flew in flights of three killer crafts which was different then the normal flights of 4 for the Tau'ri.

"Superior sir, what are our targets within the city?" inquired one of the pilots as Fleet Leader Teerts gained height and made a sweeping route around Nysha to get into position to carry out an attack run on the city.

"Ground commanders say they have some helicopter troops trapped in near the center of town and heavy fighting around the edges, so we will use our skunkwave light to drop our bombs on the roadblocks leading into the center of town." reported Teerts as he turned on what the Tau'ri would call a laser and the race called Skunkwave pointer in the nose of his fighter bomber. "We need pinpoint bombing so make sure you have careful lock on, the terrorist also have confirmed anti-air and anti-vehicle missiles stolen from us. 10 helicopters and dozens of vehicles have also been lost."

"By the Emperor how did the crawlers managed to get their claws on those?" cursed the third pilot in the formation, since they where pilots they had special training, so they didn't look down when someone said the name of their emperor. That was so that they could keep an eye on the panels and another on the slowly lightening sky.

"No idea, but we know the range of our own weapons so we will stay above their targeting ceiling so we can carry out our attack with ease." stated Teerts as he pushed his killer craft higher and higher until he was out of hand held missile range, if the terrorist had a vehicle mounted missile system or a larger missile defense battery he would still be in range but he and his flight was safe. With that done he made the turn to come on an attack run toward the city of Likna. His wing mates spreading out to carry out their own attack runs on their assigned roadblocks on different roads, as the squadron leader he had taken two of the four roads for himself. He was just beginning to get a lock on the first road block when suddenly his radio came alive.

"I have a missile incoming!" yelled one of his squadron mates. Teerts looked down at his radar and to his amazement a missile was indeed climbing up toward a member of his squadron. It was climbing so fast and it passed the max height for handheld anti-air missile systems and kept going. The other pilot took counter missile action and began to dive for the ground, twisting and turning as he released anti-radar tracking chaff, the missile flew past the fuzzy area on the radar showing where chaff was and kept going before smashing into his squadron mate. In the distance he could see the fireball of the killer craft going off.

"How is that possible?" stated Teerts as the missile alarm hissed as it detected another missile flying up from Likna and toward his other wing mate. He tried the same moves and once again the missile destroyed the craft. Knowing what was coming next Teerts turned his killer craft around and pushed the engine to max as he broke the speed of sound heading as fast as he could away. He looked down at his radar screen, there was a hissing tone in his helmet telling him there was a radar lock on him but no missile came up to get him. Instead it slowly faded as he his heart rate began to drop as he realized that he was safe. Then he realized that he had a missile lock on him for a while, the crawlers hadn't fired they had chosen to let him go. "By the Emperor what is happening down there."

 **The Condor landed on board the battleship Missouri over home with ease as Kassquit looked out the window at the Tau'ri hanger bay on this warship.** Everything she saw just confirmed what she already feared, the Tau'ri already had a military and they where more then willing to use it. As she walked down the stairs to the floor she was directly in front of one of their killer crafts that she had seen over their capital city a while ago. She saw white missile under each wing and a Tau'ri was under the main body of the killer craft loading more white missiles to latching points under there.

She turned her head and saw the most beautiful sight she had ever seen, there through an open hanger door was Home. The rich browns and golden browns of the beating heart of the Empire, the most powerful and advanced culture in the universe. Then she paused and looked around at the weapons of war around her and the Tosevites which held the power in their hands to destroy home. She had seen their home world of Tosev 3 or as they call it Earth and the deep blues of it's large oceans, greens and some stretches of golden sand, it was downright ugly. Vantic 5 at least had more agreeable browns then the ugly greens and worse looking blues.

"Kassquit come with me." said a Tau'ri in strange wrappings, he wore the armor she had seen the same power armor that other Tau'ri had worn before her only this one was colored in a mix of different shades of browns and tan tiny squares.

"It shall be done." Stated Kassquit as she was lead to an Owl transport standing there was a male dressed in white along with five other Tau'ri dressed in similar patterned wrappings. They boarded the transport which took off at once and headed toward Home. Once on board Kassquit noticed that other Tau'ri on the ship where also dressed in that color armor and wrappings. "Why are you wearing those wrappings?"

"It's called camouflage, it helps blend us into this world." stated the Tosevite

"Then why is he in white?" inquired Kassquit as she pointed toward the man in white. The man spoke to one of the other Tau'ri who answered her question.

"This is Admiral Hackett commander of the 7th Fleet and this is his dress uniform." explained the Translator "I believe you would call his rank a Fleet Lord."

"I am sorry superior sir." said Kassquit her up bring from the Race came through, his uniform was wrong but he still outranked her.

"That is ok, you are here to explain to the Emperor and the Imperial government that time is running out." explained Hackett through his translator. "We are on our way to the Imperial Palace now."

"Imperial Palace?" inquired Kassquit

"Yes, that is where we are going to drop you off." Stated the Tau'ri as Kassquit looked at the warrior.

"But…I wasn't invited…have you followed the correct protocol for a visit?" stated Kassquit as the Tau'ri looked at her and through the visor she could see him roll his eyes.

"We don't really care about your protocol at the moment." explained Hackett as the Owl jumped a bit as it entered the atmosphere. "We are basically at war and your Empire is worried about what words are said when, you are here to convince them that we are not joking. Do you understand?"

"I understand." confirmed Kassquit

"I don't think you fully understand, the sword is no longer in the scabbard, it is out and pointed right at the Empire of the Race." Stated Hackett, not fully realizing that calling the Empire, the Empire of the Race was in fact an insult all by itself. "We don't have time to waste with protocol and the time table we gave them is a fixed deadline if they do not agree to meet and agree to the total liberation of Vantic 5 as they call it we will have no choice but drive them out and then destroy the Empire of the Race as a whole."

The populates of Home had no idea that their military was already fighting on what they called Vantic 5, even so the population was concerned but sure that Emperor and his advisors would figure out everything. The Tau'ri Owl descended down from the sky but instead of landing at the space port it broke all protocol and hovered over the large inner courtyard outside of the doors to the Imperial Audience chamber. The already on edge palace guards pointed weapons at the strange craft as Admiral Hackett and three Tau'ri soldiers stepped off the back ramp. All three of the Tau'ri where armed with pistols but only two had battle rifles while the third being a translator.

A squad of palace guards moved forward with rifles raised however the Tau'ri showed no fear as the guards came ever closer.

"We need to speak with your Emperor at once." ordered Hackett through his translator.

"You need to file the proper request through the Imperial office. Now leave before we shoot." Stated the highest-ranking guard as he moved every closer. Hackett nodded his head as suddenly a shadow fell over the guards, they turned their eyes turret toward the sky to see another one of those aircraft hovering nearby and under each of the small wings where pods which contained visible machine guns and a larger gun in the snout of the aircraft.

"Well if you shoot then not only will you die but your Empire will die with it." stated Hackett to the clearly shaken guards before the craft disappeared in a shimmer which only caused the guards to become more frightened. "I am tired of dealing with middle man, now I recommend that you inform the Emperor that we are here and we need to speak with him at once."

"Go inform the Protocol master that we have guests demanding to see the Emperor." said the head guard to a lizard with a radio still looking at the Tau'ri. "You should know this is very against protocol."

"I know, but like I said I am tired of being the run around." explained Hackett as they waited. In a few minutes an older male who was clearly not the Emperor came forward.

"You need to leave at once." ordered the Protocol Master "We will meet with you but not until the proper protocols are agreed upon and everything is planned out."

"There is no time, every moment you delay more of your males will die in Likna on Opochti or as you call it Vantic 5." Stated Hackett as the guards and Protocol Master looked at him. Calmly Hackett reached over and took the computer pad from his translator's hand. "Currently we have destroyed 23 Land Cruisers, 17 infantry carriers, multiple field guns, 10 helicopters, 2 killer crafts and over 360 males of the Race have been confirmed killed in action."

"You are already attacking the Race?" yelled the Protocol Master as best as he could give his age.

"We are defending our allies and we will wait to go full out until the deadline has passed." stated Hackett "Once it has then we will unleash our full strength and many more of your males will die."

"You must be already unleashing your full strength to take down so many of our forces and at what price?" inquired a guard

"Aside from the cost of missiles and bullets, nothing." stated Hackett "And as for our full strength we have hundreds of millions of soldiers, aircrews, marines and sailors which we can pull on. Even more if we pull in the reserve and we have warehouses full of equipment ready to be used. Not that we will need any of them against you."

"You lie!" hissed the Protocol Master

"Really, well maybe this will convince you." said Hackett as he turned toward the door as Kassquit came out along with another Tau'ri soldier. "This is Kassquit a Vantic loyal to your Empire, maybe she can explain the situation you are in and how time is running out."

"Kassquit?" inquired the Protocol Master as he looked at this crawler which had been dropped before him.

"Forgive me Superior Sir." said Kassquit as she assumed the poster of respect. "I didn't expect to be on Home when I was assisting Senior Researcher Felless on Vantic 5 before I was captured by the Tau'ri Tosevites."

The Protocol Master raised his hand as Kassquit shut up and lowered her head.

"You insult the Emperor by this violation of proper protocol, however I will speak to this low-level researcher and you will return to your ship." Hissed the Protocol Master as the Tau'ri turned and headed back onto the Owl which lifted off the ground and headed back into space.

"Superior Sir, I am Kassquit I was raised by Senior Researcher Tottlamas of the conquest fleet." Explained Kassquit as she took up the position of respect. "A search of the records sent back to home by him will confirm who I am."

"No need to do that, the Tau'ri have brought the Conquest fleet to within radio message of home, We will talk to him directly." stated the Protocol Master "Follow me."

"It shall be done." confirmed Kassquit

 **Over the colonial world of Aquaria Kara Thrace brought her Viper to a level flight as she checked her instruments.** She had looked out her cockpit toward the nearby Green 6 where her wing mate Justinian was flying to her right and above her. She took a deep breath and hit her wireless and switched to squadron wide.

"Alright, I know we all want the same jobs but we need to work together" stated Starbuck as they scanned the sky looking for the oncoming Tau'ri. "We have all seen battle and we need to work together to make it."

"Frak you, the better I do the more likely I will get the job not you." snapped a voice over the wireless.

"That's right it's everyone for themselves." stated another voice

"And if you do that then we will all get fraked up and those Tau'ri cocksuckers will laugh at us and no one wants that." snapped Starbuck back as the line went dead for a moment. "So listen up you frakers, let's work together to show them up and then let our skills show them how good we are."

"Alright." said the same voice which had moments ago had called for everyone to look out for themselves.

Above them in a higher orbit the Tau'ri Eagles formed up, with their black paint and stealth cloaking they were extremely hard to see either visually or on sensors.

"Looks like Green are remaining in formation." said the lead Eagle as he looked down at Green Squadron. Nearby Yellow squadron had broken off into multiple small groups and even a few solo birds. "Alright, lets give them an air show."

The shingle squadron of Eagle dove down on their prey, as they entered the atmosphere the heat generated from entry made their wings glow and for a brief moment the Eagle pilots where blinded as the flames from entry wrapped over their cockpit canopies before clearing up again.

"I see them, 5 o'clock high!" yelled a voice over the wireless as Starbuck turned to see the Eagles diving down on them. She turned and headed toward the oncoming threat, others followed her. The Yellow squadron which was nearby wasn't so luckily either they didn't see them or the pilots where not communicating because as the Eagle's dove on them. Multiple flashing red lights appeared on the side of the vipers. That marked them as having been shot down by the simulated fire. After a couple of minutes those red marks disappeared and they where back in the fight. Similar red flashes appeared on the Tau'ri Eagles but only one of them appeared at the dogfight began.

Kara pulled on her stick as hard as she could as she got onto the back of one of the Eagle's she was about to line up a shot on the Eagle when she noticed a pair of Eagles getting behind Justinian's Viper. He was behind and below her and didn't seam to notice the Eagle's.

"Justinian, you have two Eagle's behind you on my command go to afterburner and dive to the right." Ordered Kara "Now!"

Justinian dove his viper down and Kara brought her Viper up in a loop as the two Eagle's followed the diving Justinian. When Kara looped around she was directly behind the two Eagle's in perfect attack formation only to have her own controls turn red. She looked over her shoulder to see a third Eagle had moved in behind her and taken her down before she could shoot on the other two Eagles.

"Frak, they got me Justinian." cursed Starbuck

"They just got me too." responded Justinian as they leveled off and after a moment or two reset and were back in the fight. When it was finally done Starbuck was cursing as she headed back toward the base, she had been shot down 9 times to only 3 kills. She brought her Viper in for a landing and got out only to see that the Tau'ri in their sick way had put up a score board showing who had died the most and who had gotten the most kills. As well as average time alive in the fight and an average score taking in all three factors. She was about to storm past when she noticed that her name was at the top of the list. She blinked, she hadn't gotten the most kills some luckily SOB in Red Squadron had bagged 4 Eagles but she had only been shot down 9 times while most people had been shot down over 15 times. She scanned the board and saw that Justinian had a kill to his name but had 17 deaths which marked him just outside the top 20.

 **The soldiers of the race were not having a good night by any means, they where taking constant fire from multiple different points but still they where slowly advancing through the city.** They had to clear it house by house and room by room and the deaths were beginning to mount ever higher. To the amazement of the soldiers they found no civilians, no civilians hiding in basements or backrooms, instead they found empty houses and cleared out rooms. He and his small unit team of six males where resting on the ground floor of one of those homes, they where six houses down from the front lines and out of the fighting. The room showed battle scars with both doors destroyed and bullet holes in the plaster walls.

"What is going on here?" inquired an infantry Male as he rested against a wall, the fight had been raging for hours and showed no sign of stopping. Each building cost at least two males to clear out and the fire that was being sent their way was unbelievable. They had attempted to clear the roadblock to bring in more vehicles, but the work was slow because they could only work on one side at a time. Any attempt to work on it from the city side brought machine gun fire from the other roadblock. "It is as if they cleared out."

"The crawlers are likely all still in the center of town." Hissed his squad mate as he opened a ration pack. "I should have packed more food, this is all I have. This was supposed to be a short operation."

"I am running low on ammo, I packed light." Admitted another member of the Race before lowering his head in shame. "May the Emperor turn his eye turrets away from me but I have been looting our injured and fallen for ammo."

"It is only going to get worse, the sun is rising." stated another Male as the light from the star Vantic began to fill the battle worn streets with light. "The natives will be waking up now and they will come."

"I just want to know how they are doing this? Where did they get the weapons and how are they fighting at night? Crawlers can't see past the end of their snout less faces in the dark but we are taking sniper fire?" snapped a male

"Maybe they do have allies, these Tau'ri?" said one of the males as he opened his mouth wide showing his teeth, to the Race this was similar to a deep laugh but the Tau'ri raiders listening to them from the now destroyed door leading back into the maze like alleyways. The four raiders formed up in a line with the first one armed with the shorter barrel Kriss Vector VI sub machine gun. The lead man poked the barrel around the bottom corner of the broken back door. Giving him a view of the inside with the barrel mounted camera. Not wanted to give away their position with a flash bang the shooter raised one of his hands holding up three figures before quickly putting it down, three seconds later he fired a short burst into one of the lizards before moving on to get another lizard with another burst.

The soldiers of the race had next to no time to react as two of their squad went down suddenly, they turned toward the door and raised their weapons, but it was too late as the Tau'ri dropped them with ease. The only one to make it out alive was the member of the Race standing by the front door and that was because he ran instead of fighting.

Ullhass didn't know how he made it across the street with bullets snapping at his feet and all around him. He dove into the open door of the house across the street from the one he had been in.

"By the Emperor what are you thinking!" yelled the highest-ranking officer in the room.

"Superior sir!" yelled Ullhass as he pointed across the road. To the amazement of the officer and everyone else who turned an eye turret across the road to see a figure standing in the doorway. It stood on two legs like a member of the Race but as tall as a crawler and was dressed in strange wrappings. It raised a gun and fired a short burst which passed just over the head of the officer who ran for cover. Moments later the Race returned fire but the target was gone.

"What was that?" inquired the small unit commander as he and others looked across the road.

 **Down the road near the roadblock the rising sun had brought out more Opochti freedom fighters as they took up spots on the line sending in more fire toward the pinned down members of the Race.** On top of the roadblock near the destroyed tank which had stopped burning during the night lied a Tau'ri machine gun crew. Sending short bursts of fire down range toward the buildings which the Race held.

"We should be able to hold this position easy for another hour maybe 90 minutes and then we will have to pull back." Said the loader as she made sure the belts of ammo went in right.

"I agree however it depends on if they finally push through the first roadblock." stated the gunner as an artillery shell flew over their heads heading toward the Race's artillery positions. Thanks to knocking out the Race's tracking radar and the video up link to the drones the limited artillery they had within the city was tearing into the Race. The mortar teams where dropping their rounds on the race with ease, they had avoided dropping the rounds on the houses to avoid destruction of the local homes but the soldiers outside the wall was fair game.

Suddenly the roadblock leading outside the wall exploded as a tank shell exploded within the mass of rubble which made up the bulk of the roadblock. Multiple other shells followed as the race blew a hole in the barrier. With the door open more soldiers began to pour in and fan out, moving into the deadly maze of side streets which had been used by the Tau'ri to move around. With the influx of soldiers, the Tau'ri began to fall back, even as they fell back they made the race pay, wounded and dead lizards. The fell back in good order and moved back into more prepared defenses with even more surprises for the attacking forces of the Race.

 **Back at the command center Ship Lord Binia was not able to fully process the information that was coming into his command center.** The crawlers somehow had gotten artillery and had magained to knock out multiple gun crews and in the opening moments of the battle they had destroyed his radar tracking blinding him. He had ordered them to fire back but his guns where being torn apart with pinpoint fire from within the city. Believing that the only answer had to be a crawler outside the city with a civilian radio reporting the position he had ordered jamming to begin but the shells kept falling.

Then came more reports of the crawlers having small arms which they shouldn't have by any logical reasoning. Finally came reports coming in from his males of strange creatures fighting alongside of the crawlers. To make matters even worse the Fleet Lord Straha was still hanging around his command center watching every move he made.

"How many have we lost?" inquired Binia

"Over a thousand males wounded or dead." Stated his aid as Binia let out a resigned hiss.

"So Binia, this battle had already become the single most deadly battle in the conquest of any world in the history of the Race. The other two worlds fell with only a three thousand total dead spread out over two worlds and here the entire conquest cost 500 males." stated Straha "And there are riots and revolt happening across the planet as the crawlers cover the news broadcasts about the uprising here. So tell me what do you propose we do about it?"

"Exulted Fleet Lord, I propose we pull back and wait them out." Stated Binia as Straha looked at him, both his eye turrets locked on him a sign that he was paying close attention. "We are the Race, we are thoughtful, we are careful they are crawlers we can surround them and starve them out. There has to be thousands of crawlers within that city and not enough food. Within a few weeks they will be starved out and surrender without the loss of another male."

"I see." Stated Straha as he walked over and looked at the large map which was hanging on the wall of Binia's command tent. "This is a wise plan; however the crawlers have given us a deadline if we do not take this city in 2 more days they will claim a victory and we will have more uprisings, no we can't wait them out. We need to strike them hard and with so much force that the crawlers will finally admit to themselves that they are part of the Empire."

"I agree exulted Fleet Lord but would it be worth the price of all the males in taking the city?" inquired the Ship Lord as Straha eyes scanned the map.

"Tell me the wind here blows to the North correct?" inquired Straha out of no where.

"Yes, exulted Fleet Lord I believe they do." stated Binia

"Good." Said Straha as he picked up a pointed and placed it on the Likna "So fall out from an explosive metal bomb would blow north, away from our main settlements toward this forest here and then this canyon before reaching this ocean here?"

Binia blinked a few times as he looked at the map, to the North of Likna was a large forest followed by the a canyon which ran toward the capital and before the arrival of the Race had been an impassible line of defense for the city. Then there was grassland which had mostly crawler settlements on them before going down to the sea.

"You are right Exulted Fleet Lord but an explosive metal bomb? You can't really be considering using them?" inquired Binia as Straha opened his mouth in a wide laugh.

"No, not really but the crawlers don't know that. Let them fear a nuclear tipped missile coming at them from orbit. It will scare them into accepting the natural order." stated Straha "Summon some of their elders who know their place and put out word we want to meet them. Inform them that if they do not surrounded within a day we will drop an explosive metal bomb on them. That will get them to fall in line."

"And forgive me Exulted Fleet Lord, what if it doesn't?" inquired the Ship Lord as Straha paused for a moment thinking.

"Then we will have to carry out the attack but it will be a harsh lesson to finally break the resistance. Either way we will end these terrorists once and for all." stated Straha "Now carry out my orders."

"It shall be done." confirmed Binia

 **Well I hope you liked this chapter, sorry for the slight delay one of my coworkers had a family emergency so the rest of the department is taking up her work while she is away. It cut into my writing time but I hope you understand. Now until next time please keep reading. Thanks Wilkins75.**


	21. Chapter 21

**Chapter 21 Disregarded Demand**

Night had fallen on Earth, the lights of the still being constructed capital city of the Tau'ri were all aglow as President Carter sat behind her desk in the Presidential estate. In truth she was still a week out from officially becoming president, but the Tau'ri Congress was already in session and everyone already acted like she was President. She let out a deep breath and looked down at her paperwork before a knock at the door caused her to look up.

"Enter." said Carter as the door opened showing one of the President's protective detail opening the door for an old friend of her. "Jack."

"Carter? Are you having fun yet?" asked the retired General of Home World Defense, head of the SGC and like her a former member of SG1 Jack O'Neill.

"Tons." Answered Carter as Jack sat across from her. "What are you doing here?"

"I was going to have dinner with my granddaughter but she is busy helping those Opochti refugees." Explained Jack as Sam nodded her head and looked at her friend. He was finally showing his age, all 74 years. With all the advanced technology coming from the gate life span for a twenty-year-old now was estimated to be an average of a 150 years and a newborn would see 200 or more years. The technology came too late for Jack and his generation or even her generation to prolong their lives as much as it would for the next generation.

"Enjoying fishing and your cabin?" inquired Carter as Jack nodded his head.

"Only real complaint is the aid that the military assigned me and people bugging me to write my autobiography." Stated Jack as he leaned back in his chair. "I am half tempted to just let Daniel do that and have him cover it all."

"I had a few requests for my autobiography as well, they say I would make billions from it." Stated Carter

"Same here." admitted Jack "However your story is far from over, unless they want a deep account of the same couple fish I keep catching in my pound it is done for me."

"Maybe." Laughed Carter

"Have you heard anything from Teal'c or Bra'tac?" inquired Jack as Carter shook her head.

"Not for a while, everything is kind in flux outside of our space. The free Jaffa nations which where unified have broken up into smaller nations and we have reports that there is unrest in all of them. Even the one Bra'tac runs." Reported Carter with a sad voice. "Not as much as in some and he isn't doing the crackdowns on his citizens like some are."

"Sounds like when the Soviet Union broke up." Added Jack

"Worse, most of the Jaffa can barely read and write, most are around the educational level of a six grader or lower." Explained Carter with a shake of her head. "They where taught only how to fight by the Goa'uld and they generally don't know anything beside that. They don't even know how their own ships and weapons work only what they need to do to make them same for the Lucian Alliance groups."

"Is anyone focusing on Educational?" inquired Jack

"Some are and they have the greatest chance of making it in the long run but stronger nations are risking to swallowing them." stated Carter as she let out a sigh. "Jack can I ask your advice?"

"Of course." Confirmed Jack

"I have a small Lucian Alliance nation which will be coming here in a couple days, officially they want an alliance to defend them from other larger powers." stated Carter "Unofficially, intelligence believes they will ask to join our alliance."

"Let me guess it's the one by Lanagara?" inquired Jack as Carter nodded her head. "If you accept them it will almost certain cause a war."

"I know." confirmed Carter as she thought about their position, it was a narrow front which they would have to protect against multiple other waring Lucian alliance and Free Jaffa powers. "It will be so easy to be drawn into a war if we accept them into the alliance."

"But if you don't then what will happen next time when we add to this alliance." Stated Jack "Well maybe once you get ZPMs it will be much easier."

Carter laughed a bit before shaking her head.

"I am not surprised you found out about the Zephry mineral on Ovea." Stated Carter "You are the former head of the Tau'ri military, you may be out of the loop officially but not unofficially."

"So what is your plans for the Opochti people?" inquired Jack

"Help them in any way we can and in return we get an exclusive deal to get Zephry." Stated Carter "We would have helped them anyhow just like we have been helping less developed worlds within our space with schools, medical aid and other technology."

"But the Opochti have something we want, kind of like…that was that black thing we always went after...Oil." laughed Jack, as Carter nodded her head in agreement. Oil was the life blood of the industrial revolution and pre-stargate warfare. That had been replaced with Naquadah fuel cells which burned far cleaner and Naquadah was actually somewhat common in the grand space of the galaxy. There where whole asteroids being mined over Venus for it, the asteroids themselves having being brought in from elsewhere.

"Well we are going to treat the Opochti people right and just because they have something we want doesn't mean I haven't made a few demands which they have agreed to."

"Like what?" inquired Jack

"Before the Race arrived they had slaves and indentured servitude." Stated Carter "That is going and Prince Unia has already agreed to those conditions as well as other issues like free access to basic education, equality between genders and trail by jury."

"Good and they agreed to all this?" inquired Jack

"Actually, the gender and trail by jury were already in their culture however in their system if a female commits a crime it is an all female jury and same with class, so the rich judge the rich and the poor the poor." admitted Carter with a shrug "So it was easy to get them to agree change that. I just hope that we can avoid any more bloodshed with the Race."

 **Kassquit was never so happy as she went into the heart of the Imperial Palace, as she moved through the ancient halls made of stone she couldn't help but remember the history she had been taught.** The names of the Emperors who had forever shaped the Empire, the ones who lead great battles to unify home, who oversaw the building of greatness of the Race. All of them had walked down these halls and had lived their entire lives within these unconquered walls. Finally, they reached a door which opened to show a normal meeting room, with ten chairs spread around a large table. It was a room not that different then the meeting rooms where she had had talks with Felless and other researchers only here everything was of a higher quality and it was inside the Imperial Palace.

"Sit." ordered the Protocol Master as he pointed toward a seat at the head of the table, he moved toward the one nearer to the door while across from him sat a member of the Imperial guard in their gray body paint.

"It shall be done superior Sir." Confirmed Kassquit as she sat at the chair, the chair wasn't designed for her longer body and she always found it somewhat uncomfortable but this was what she always had known, so she was used to it.

"So you are Kassquit." said the palace guard "One of the guards radioed your name to me and I have contacted Senior Researcher Ttomalss. He has told me about you and confirmed that you where raised by him and that he left you with Senior Researcher Felless."

"Yes, superior Sir." Confirmed Kassquit as suddenly the door opened, thanks to having eyes which wrapped around the side of her head she had an extremely wide range of image. Actually, her and other Vantic had a greater range of vision then the race, however the Race's eye turrets where able to move freely which allowed them to watch two areas at once. The Protocol master turned one of his eye turrets toward the door only to jump out of his seat. The Palace guard did the same, followed moments later by Kassquit.

"Your majesty." Said the Protocol Master as he lowered himself into the position of respect reserved only for the Emperor, it was the same poster which the Palace Guard was assuming and Kassquit was trying her best to do. However her body wasn't designed to assume the position and she couldn't do it fully.

"That is enough, we have important issues to discuss and so I have come to hear what this junior researcher has to say about the Tau'ri." Stated Emperor Risson as he moved to take the seat across from her at the table. "So please Junior Researcher tell us about the Tau'ri.

"Your grace…the Tau'ri are all but at war with the Empire." Stated Kassquit "They took me when they raided an educational center, with infantry males and what looked to be land cruisers only wheeled not tracked."

"And why did they do this?" inquired Risson

"Your majesty Fleet Lord Straha had begun rounding up the Vantic young to begin to force educated them into being citizens of the Empire. The Vantic locals did not like this and they have a foolish idea that blood bonds matter outside of the line of the Emperor." Stated Kassquit "The Tau'ri seam to follow the same foolish idea and they took offense to what we where doing to help educate the savages and they have joined with them. They took me to their home world and showed me their capital city. They have thousands of our citizens there and they have taken over the city of Likna near the capital on Vantic 5."

"I see." stated Emperor Risson "So they are already attacking us."

"Yes, your majesty then they took me in one of their transports to Tosev 4 or as they call it Mars and to a military base there. They are preparing for war and they have a standing military." Stated Kassquit

"As you feared your Majesty, they waste resources on having a standing military force instead of putting limited resources to better uses." Stated the Guard as Risson raised one of his hands and instantly everyone fell silent, Kassquit held her breath while the other two who had more experience being around Emperors waited.

"You said, you where taken to Tosev 4 but unless I am mistaken that world doesn't support life?" inquired Risson

"You are correct your majesty when our probe reached the Tosev system that world and Tosev 2 didn't support life however they do now, the Tau'ri Tosevites have the technology to homeify barren worlds and they have done so on these worlds." Stated the Protocol Master "I have seen Tosev 4 or Mars as they call it with my own eyes."

"So their technology is even higher then we thought and with this technology and their capability to travel faster then light they can colonize systems which are normally lifeless." Stated Risson "And they are forming against us."

"Your majesty, this Fleet Lord Hackett informed me that the sword of war is drawn and ready." Added Kassquit "They do not have time for protocols and that their deadline is hard."

"No time for Protocols they are savages." Stated the Protocol Master "They expect us to hand over Vantic 5 and doom the locals to backwardness with no culture."

"And what will they do with our people who now call the world home?" stated Risson

"Your majesty, our colonist there are defended by the males of the conquest fleet they will not loss to these Tau'ri tosevites." Stated the Protocol Master "I oversaw the final stages of the plan to build a military and to launch the conquest fleet, they can't loss to sword swing animals."

"Protocol Master that is wrong, the Tau'ri already have a fleet over our heads and they can bring war fleets to every world within the Empire within minutes." Stated the Guard "They could crush the empire and if so what does it matter if Vantic 5 stays strong."

"In 3 days the conquest fleet they brought from Tosev 3 will arrive and Home will be safe." Stated the Protocol Master

"But the deadline is 2 days and if the Tau'ri deploy explosive metal bombs they could crush the Empire before the conquest fleet arrives to defend us." countered the Guard

"They wouldn't dare." Stated the Protocol Master

"You yourself stated they are sword swinging primitives can we expect them to be cultured in a way to avoid using nuclear weapons?" countered the Guard

"True." Hissed Emperor Risson as he turned to look at the Protocol Master "You said you had a rough outline of what happens when a foreign diplomat has an audience with an Emperor do you have any new information?"

"Not as yet your grace only the outline, we are missing the words that each side has to say to have it done properly and the proper position that the flag carrier has to come in." stated the Protocol Master "There is also word of a live band and singers to perform the Imperial Song of that Empire, however that was later replaced by auto recordings."

"Alright." Stated Emperor Risson as he checked the wall mounted clock, it was getting late in the afternoon. "You will have until dawn to finish your research, then inform the Tau'ri we will meet them in a day and half at noon."

The Protocol Master raised a hand in protest only to lower it when he saw the look his emperor was giving him.

"It shall be done." Said Protocol Master "I will send the message at once."

"Good." said Risson as he looked at his Protocol Master before turning toward Kassquit "I will make sure you have one of the guest rooms inside the Imperial Palace until the situation is solved."

"Thank you your majesty it is a great honor." Said Kassquit as Risson turned and walked out of the room.

"What an honor to stay inside the Imperial Palace." Added Kassquit in a wonderful voice.

"I hate to throw sand in your face but he is not trying to honor you." Admitted the Palace Guard as Kassquit looked at him. "If you leave the palace then someone outside these walls will see you and ask questions. He doesn't want males and females to panic with the knowledge that for the 1st time in the history of the Race a more powerful Empire now sits over it and can bring down destruction at any moment it chooses."

"I…see." Admitted Kassquit, the words the palace guard gave where harsh and had bitter sharp teeth but where very true as well.

 **The Tau'ri and Opochti defenders of Likna had been pushed back to the other side of the second roadblock, however they where making the Race pay for every yard.** Preplaced machine guns mowed down race soldiers as they tried to get over the second barrier. Any vehicle which attempted to break through was destroyed in one way or another until their wrecks made a roadblock onto themselves. With the rising sun the Opochti were out in force and the increase in fire only caused the race to keep their heads down. The coming light allowed some of the Tau'ri defenders to get some rest and spend some time away from the front lines. When the fire suddenly stopped all of the resting Tau'ri grabbed their weapons and prepared for something.

"We have a green banner." Said one of the locals as the Tau'ri looked at each other.

"There is a member of the Race out there with a green flag on it." Explained a Tau'ri machine gunner who hadn't pulled back for a rest. "They told me to stop firing, must be kind of like a white flag."

"So they are surrendering?" inquired another Tau'ri as he and the rest of his team crawled to the top of the barrier and poked their guns over the top. The cameras mounted on the barrels allowed them to see that there was a member of the Race waving a green banner in the middle of the road. The banner was shaped like a pennant not a normal flag but the idea seamed the same. Moments later a group of Opochti and another two members of the Race came forward. One of the members of the Race waved a green banner as well.

"Command do you see this?" inquired the commander over the radio

"We do, Prince Unia informs me that is a sign they want to talk your orders are to blind fold them and bring them back to the temple in the main market." Ordered Colonel Drugov

"Understood." Said the commander as one of the freedom fighter began to move forward getting out of cover.

"Wait." Ordered the commander as the fighter looked at him. "Get some cloth and cover their eyes."

"But they are coming in under banner of truce, honor demands that they do not disclose what they see." countered the soldier. "It would a sign of dishonor to blind them."

"Fuck." Cursed the commander

"Your people will follow that right?" inquired the machine gunner

"Of course, they wear the cloths of an elder holy priests they will never bring shame on the ancestors by breaking this trust." Stated the soldier

"But will the Race?" inquired the machine gunner

"I see, I will blind him." Said the freedom fighter as he moved forward and after a much-heated exchange with the lizard and the two Opochti the lizard was blinded and led over the barrier.

"You dishonor the ancestors by doing this, blinding him is against the rules of this honorable event." Stated one of the priests only to have the freedom fighter point toward where the Tau'ri where lying in a prone position with weapons pointed down range.

"I follow the wish of an allie and we must honor the wish of a friend who is giving us aid." Stated the soldier as a Tau'ri came up to them and with a raised hand told them to stop. With a few taps of his computer pad he did a quick scan of the visitors only to stop and look at the lizard. With a quick movement he opened one of the pouches on his belt.

"What are you doing?" hissed the lizard as the Tau'ri pulled out a small disk about the size of a thumb tack. Then taking a risk he explained in the local tongue.

"Tracker, listening devises as well."

"You will not be able to follow us to the command area, we were right to blind you." stated the freedom fighter as the priests nodded their heads in agreement. With that the freedom fighter along with two others and two Tau'ri lead the delegation down the road. Past a few more roadblocks and more fixed positions, by the time the delegation had reached the temple in the town square all over the city the guns had fallen quiet. The temple had been built to honor the ancestors of the town only to be taken over by the Race to spread their own religion. The holographic images showing the images of the current Emperor as well as others had been turned off but not destroyed. The electrical lights had been turned off and instead a roaring fire once again burned in the center of the temple. Everything was cast in bright light and in pitch blackness. In the darkest corner away from the fire stood Colonel Drogov while Prince Unia stood beside the reignited flame of the ancestors. The banner of his house crest in all hung from a pole to his left which was the traditional spot for it while a blue and silver Tau'ri flag hung to his right. The town local priest which had been forced to work as a street cleaner to earn food after the Race had kicked him out of the Temple now stood tending the fire once again.

The two Tau'ri which had followed them in moved into the darkness as well allowing the locals to take the lead. They removed the blinders and the lizard blinked.

"About time." He said with a hiss

"You came to speak with me so speak." stated Prince Unia

"I am Bunim, I am a Regional Sub administrator for this area and I have been sent in by Ship Lord Binia and Fleet Lord Straha to demand your surrender at once." Hissed Bunim as his eyes scanned the darkness, however his eyes never locked on the Tau'ri hiding in the dark meaning it was likely he didn't see them.

"No, we declared that this is the free city of Likna and thanks to our allies the Tau'ri we will hold it and in time reclaim our world." Stated Prince Unia as he pointed toward the blue and silver Tau'ri flag. Bunim responded by opening his mouth showing all his teeth.

"Very funny, it is funny how you pretend like young still wet from the egg that you have friends who can stand against the might of the Empire." stated Bunim "Now let us deal with fact. You are surrounded, you have no way to escape and you have a city full of civilians here. You can't hold out forever so surrender hand over all weapons, terrorists, the hatchlings you took from the school and most of all yourself."

"We will never hand over our children, it is you who should be surrendering there is a war fleet over your Home and you can't win." Stated Prince Unia as Bunim opened his mouth again in a laugh.

"Your ability to fool yourself is amazing crawler, if you don't surrender within a single day the Fleet Lord has authorize the use of an explosive metal bomb on this city." Stated Bunim as all the Tau'ri in the darkness took note of the time and cursed to themselves. "We will not allow this rebellion to go on, so give up and save your lives and live under the glory of the Emperor."

For the longest time no one said anything as Bunim looked across the fire toward Prince Unia.

"No." stated Prince Unia as Bunim blinked rapidly for a moment. "We will not surrender."

"Maybe you will listen to your elder false religion leaders." Stated Bunim as he turned an eye turret each toward the two priests in expectation that they would convince him to surrender.

"Tell me Prince Unia is what you say true?" inquired the elder Priest

"It is." confirmed Colonel Drugov in the darkness as Bunim eye turrets flicked to his direction but in the darkness he couldn't see much. "You Regional Sub administrator has taken this to a new level, I hope you are prepared for the results of your threat. You may have just doomed your Empire."

"Drop this false front and surrender, you can hid in the darkness and use a speaking program on a computer doesn't change anything." Snapped Bunim "Surrender now."

"Never." Stated Prince Unia as Bunim looked at the priests who were suppose to connive the Prince to surrender, however unlike him they had seen the Tau'ri. "We are done here."

With that the freedom fighters put the blindfold back on and led the Regional Sub administrator out of the room. With him gone Colonel Drugov moved toward the light allowing the Priests to see him.

"What are we going to do?" inquired Prince Unia "These explosive metal bombs turn night into day."

"They used them here before?" inquired Drugov

"In the sky the day they arrived, it caused mass panic and they said it is a powerful weapon." Stated Prince Unia

"It is, but we have much more deadly weapons." stated Drugov as he tapped the computer pad on his forearm which active his long-range radio.

 **This linked him to the Akula class stealth ship already in orbit.** From there the message was sent back to Earth and before the Race even knew the result of the meeting a military officer was walking toward President's Carter opened the door to find her still talking with Jack.

"Madam President, forgive me for interrupting but we have flash traffic from Opochti." Said the military officer as he saluted his president and the former General sitting across from her.

"No problem Walter, how is the family doing." Inquired Carter as she took the report.

"Well Madam President." Stated Walter as Sam scanned the document and let out a sigh.

"What is it?" inquired Jack

"The Race has threatened to carry out a nuclear strike if Likna doesn't surrender itself by this time tomorrow their planet time so 14 hours from now." Stated Carter as she took a breath. "Inform General Leong and Admiral Hackett the liberation of Ovea and the Opochti people will have to be pushed forward, we can't risk a nuclear strike. Send out flash traffic messages to all commands expect full scale military operations to begin with the next 8 to 10 hours."

"Yes, Madam President." Confirmed Walter as he snapped to attention and moved to carry out his orders.

 **The message of the Race's threat to launch a nuclear strike had reached General Jagar outside of the Ovea stargate before the news had reached Earth and his president.** He stood around a folding table with a map of the area as around him the men and women along with local Opochti help prepared for their assault. Thanks to the strange trees which where far taller, with thin narrow trunks which opened up into wide sold branches like leaf covered mushrooms they had cover from above. The wide spacing between tree trunks allowed the tanks and other vehicles to move with some ease.

"The Race has threatened to carry out a nuclear strike on Likna unless they surrender within a day." Explained General Jagar to the officers around him and the freedom fighter leaders assigned by Prince Unia to work for him. "We have to assume our time table has just been pushed up by at least 7 hours. The question is can we make that deadline?"

"We will have enough tanks and other vehicles for the main thrust down on the forces around Likna before rounding to take the Capital." Confirmed one of his officers. "I am concerned however that we will not have enough up for a reserve force."

"I agree, we will have to throw everything into the first strike holding nothing back." Stated General Jagar as he studied the map. "I am also concerned about the flanks, if the Race moved quickly they could strike us before we fully take the capital. This base here to the North east concerns me the most."

The officers all looked at the base, it was a good distance off but still in a spot where a hard driving commander could get his forces into a flanking position in time to do some real damage.

"Our one grace there is that to reach our flanks they would have to travel east to this position here and cross a bridge over the canyon." stated Jagar "If we had more time to send in more forces I would send a unit there to take and hold the bridge but we don't have the time to get the units in place. So do we destroy it?"

"How big is this bridge?" inquired a Marine officer.

"About the size of the Brooklyn bridge only made totally out of metal and concrete no stone, it crossed over this canyon here which runs around the Northern part of the capital city." stated Jagar

"That canyon has always been a natural defense for our city, we thought no one could cross it but the race flew over it in their helicopters and aircraft." stated the freedom fighter as Jagar looked at the canyon again as an idea came to his mind before looking to the commander of the four Osprey ground attack and the dozen Adar attack helicopters sitting under cover waiting to go into battle. More Helicopters where sitting on Mars by the gate, when the time came the gate would open and they would fly through to join the fight.

"How wide is this canyon?" inquired the pilot as he looked at the map and studied it for a moment. "We can fly down it, avoiding their radar system and come up within a dozen kilometers from their airbase near the capital without them knowing we are there until it is too late and if we have too we can destroy that as well."

"How large is this park here?" inquired the marine as looked at the map. "And here and here as well."

Jagar tapped a few buttons on his computer pad and pulled up the area of each park and handed it to the marine.

"Large enough to land multiple owls full of troops and take the bridge." Stated the marine "We can pull marines from the 7th fleet or from back on Earth."

"Alright, they can take the bridge and hold and if have to we will destroy it to keep our flank safe." Stated Jager as he looked at the freedom fighters. "Can you get a couple squads with weapons to these parks without being discovered, it will be helpful to have local guides and seeing you will calm your people down."

"It shall be done." said the freedom fighter as Jager nodded his head.

 **The message of the coming threat of war reached Valhalla moments after the President had declared the likelihood of war.** Here the threat the race put to the world was tiny and came mostly in the form of what forces may have to be pulled from defense duty to take part in the action. General Young commander of Valhalla looked at the tactical situation of his world. His defense fleet was located mostly around Valhalla, the 12 colonies and a little bit around the Cylon space, every ship could arrive back at Valhalla within 6 hours to respond to any threats. Outside of Earth's system which contained Mars and Venus, Valhalla had the most defense satellites and held the bulk of the shipyards currently under Tau'ri control. Countless factories most of them focused on military production was located on his world, from small arms to tanks, from owls to Battleships Valhalla was the beating heart of the Tau'ri Military.

General Young took a scan of the message and nodded his head.

"Well it is about time." Said Young as he took a breath and made a few notes before placing his call. He looked straight at the computer screen as the connection was made, an image of a man sitting behind his own desk appeared. A man he both respected and hated appeared.

"Doctor Rush." Answered Rush without even bothering to look up from his own work.

"Rush it's Young." Greeted the two men

"General how can I help you this morning?" inquired Rush not even realizing it was well past 4 in the afternoon.

"I thought you would be happy to hear it looks like they are going to take on the Race on Ovea sooner then we originally planned." Stated General Young "Which means we may have ZPMs sooner than we expected."

"But I will still not get them from my project." Countered Rush

"Not at first no, the first thing we are likely to do with them is swap out the fake ones we left with the colonials with the original ones. Once we make more of them it isn't worth all the trouble that would come up if they found out we had them." explained Young "Besides from what I have read Ovea is full of Zephry and how much Zephry would we actually need for a ZPM."

"Just under a ton." Explained Rush with a straight face which took General Young back. "A lot of it will be loss in refining it to the grade we will need for ZPMs, we don't put raw Zephry in it needs refined. You get our team 10 tons of Zephry you will get 10 ZPMs in about 12 months."

"Ok, that is a little more then I expected and longer time to make." Stated Young

"A ZPM is not a bullet or something else you can mass produce, every ZPM will take time and resources to make. You can't start an production line and expect to have the first one done in a few hours." Countered Rush "Didn't you read the report I sent in about that and why it will be far more useful to have the first couple ZPMs go to the Destiny II project because you can make more while we are on route to the target galaxy."

General Young glared at the man, Rush knew full well that he got dozens of reports a day and couldn't read them all in detail.

"I will make sure Doctor Jackson knows about that." Said general Young as Rush finally looked up from his papers.

"What?"

"You didn't read the memo sent out? Or maybe it didn't get to you." Said Young twisting his own knife into Rush. "It hasn't been decided for sure yet but either Doctor Jackson or Doctor Woosley will be leading up this project."

"But I am…." Started Rush

"The head science officer…maybe." countered Young "Some want you to be placed under Doctor McKay if he agrees to leave Atlantis or maybe Dr. Zelenka."

"I was promised." Started Rush as Young raised his hand.

"You are going to be the head scientist on the Destiny II when it launches from the supergate we will build in that galaxy to link with the ancient supergate. For the first leg of your mission you may be under someone for science lead and you are for sure going to be under someone on the civilian and military side." Stated Young "You are not a gifted diplomat and if we sent you to this galaxy as head of the civilian force we would be in a war over there in like five minutes."

Rush held his tongue for a moment before nodding his head.

"Very well." Confirmed Rush "Since you are here I have located the best spot for us to build the supergate."

With that the image on General Young screen change to show an image of a spiral galaxy, a spot was highlighted near the center of the galaxy.

"There is a massive black hole here which will be prefect for powering a supergate." Stated Rush as the image changed again to show another galaxy this one labeled Milky way. "Our galaxy is perpendicular to our target galaxy so we will actually be coming at it from what could be considered as below so we will not have to travel through the entire galaxy arm to reach it."

"I see." Said Young "Make sure you find some back up black holes as well. If this place is in the middle of some alien culture's space they may not let us set up there and we will have to move."

"But this is the prefect spot." Countered Rush

"We have to consider that possibility and hell we may have to cancel the mission or find another galaxy if all of the black holes are claimed by other cultures." Stated Young "We are not going to start a war for your mission Doctor Rush and that is one of the reasons you are not leading it."

"Very well." hissed Rush as he closed the channel and Young let out a sigh before going back to his own work.

 **The flash traffic warning of the soon to be war between the Tau'ri and the Race was sent to every military leader who commanded independent commands spread out across the galaxy and beyond.** Far away from the battles brewing in the Milky way Galaxy, General John Sheppard stood on the bridge of the battleship Minnesota which was the flag ship of the 9th fleet. He was in the middle of having a friendly chat with the Admiral in command of the fleet and another Admiral who was in commander of the operation going on outside when an aid walked up and saluted.

"General Sheppard we have flash traffic from Earth." Stated the aid as Sheppard took the report signing the confirmation as he opened up the email.

"General Sheppard is something going on?" inquired the one of the Admiral.

"Nothing that really affects us, looks like the military is going to finally crush this empire of the Race." explained Sheppard as he took a drink of his coffee. With that done the head of Tau'ri military forces in the Pegasus Galaxy and second overall command of all forces behind General Leong turned and looked at the two Admirals. "So we are testing the docking today and if goes well then tomorrow we will test docking while the gate is activated and then in a week or so we will do an actual test, correct?"

"That is the general plan General, we may have to push it back a couple of days but not much." Stated the Admiral as Sheppard looked out the window toward the Supergate which the Tau'ri had just finished building. Nearby a large black hole was the power source for this super project as around it where dozens of defense stations and minefields. This was only the 4th known supergate and the first built by the Tau'ri. The other two built by the Ori for their invasion of the Milky way galaxy and the other one being an ancient supergate built to help the destiny program. This gate would be a model for a planned gate in a distance galaxy which would allow them to launch a new Destiny ship to finish the mission of the 1st ancient Destiny without having to wait millions of years for the ship to get it's destination by normal hyperspace.

The gate was similar in most ways to an ORI supergate with multiple panels forming a ring with energy transfer points clearly visible only here a large more solid metal ring was placed over the supergate as a whole. Shepard watched as it glowed for a moment as a massive energy shield expanded over the gate forming an iris similar to what was found on Atlantis's gate. That test lasted only a couple of moments and then the Ragnarok came into view. The ship which was in truth just a single moveable superweapon similar to the Dra'ka weapon moved into position before deploying out from the ship form to the weapon form which was in the shape of a large + sign. With that done it was moved forward toward the supergate by smaller towing ships. Once at a certain distance more ships came in and carefully placed 8 massive pipes which locked onto each of the four points of the ship. Two from each and angled out toward the larger supergate below. When it was done the General and the Admirals looked at what was before them. It was kind of strange, the Ragnarok was smaller than the Super Gate so the power lines which moved from each tip of the Ragnarok angled away to attach to their designed spot on the gate.

"Connections look good, all power flow seams good as well." Stated one of the Admirals "Looks like project Crucible has reached another milestone."

"Yes." Said General Shepard who didn't share the same joy in his voice as the Admiral. "We are one step closer to making an even more deadly version of the Dra'ka superweapon, we should be very pleased with ourselves."

 **Thanks to the speed of communication that the Tau'ri used General Sheppard in the Pegasus galaxy knew the results of the meeting on Ovea before even the commanders of the Race did.**

"So they fail to see reason." Stated Ship lord Binia with a heavy hiss.

"Yes superior sir, they refuse to surrender and the two elders in their false belief refused to make the terrorist surrender." confirmed Regional Sub administrator Bunim

"But the terrorist Unia is in the city?" inquired Straha

"Yes Exulted Fleet Lord." Confirmed Bunim

"Then there may be some good in this after all." Hissed Straha "We nuke the city and he is gone and the last standing Prince of this world is gone and a new age can begin."

"Forgive me Exulted Fleet Lord but this was suppose to be just a threat are you considering dropping an explosive metal bomb for real?" inquired Ship Lord Bunim

"I am warming up to the idea." Stated Starha "Either that or just overwhelm the city with shelling and airstrikes until not a single stone is on top of each other. Burn it to the ground and lay waste to everything inside. Let this be the funeral flame for the terrorists."

"Exulted Fleet Lord, if I may we do still have males trapped within the city the ones sent in by helicopter." Stated Binia "We need to pull them out before we carry out any strike."

"No we don't." stated Straha as Bunim and Binia looked at him. The corner stone of the Race society was that members of lower ranks follow the orders of those above and in return those above a duty to look after the welfare of those below them by not sending in a rescue Straha was not looking after those males trapped inside. "By the Emperor I want to send in a rescue squad but how many males will die trying to save the 40 males still trapped within? More then 40 I believe."

"Truth." Confirmed Binia with a heavy hiss. "It will not be worth the lives of the males being sent in to rescue them. It would put them at too great of risk."

"Truth." Confirmed Straha as his body cried out for rest but he had to make one critical call. "I am going to go back to the Capital and await their answer. You need sleep as well Binia order your males to begin to pull out destroying everything as they do. The males in the rank will like that and order more artillery up, we will attempt to bomb them into submission and use the explosive metal bomb as a last resort."

"It shall be done." Confirmed Binia as Straha turned and headed toward his waiting car and while his driver headed back to the city he closed his eye turret and let sleep claim him.

 **The Sun was setting over the Martian grassland as Torren Shepard adopted Son of General John Sheppard stood in formation along with other marines**. To his right Ashley Williams who he meet on the fields outside of the capital city on Tauron stood in formation as well.

"Listen up, the plans have changed." Yelled an officer to them. "The Race has threatened to carry out a nuclear strike on our allies in the city of Likna. We will be launching the attack early."

"Oh fun." Whispered Ashley

"Now our mission will be similar to what happened on Tauron we will take land in parks around the capital city and take key targets." Stated the officer "We will be inserting by owl transports."

In the distance the marines could already see Owls landing onboard a couple nearby Hadrian class transports. The Owl didn't have the range to carry out this assault on it's own so the massive flat cargo beds of the Hadrian would do take them most of the way. They could also see Condor bombers being loaded up with missiles and larger pelican transports being prepared, near the larger transports stood a large group of rangers. Their army uniform being slightly different then his marine one. Nearby he could also he a couple of Pelican gunships loading up for a battle as well. The massive ships where basically following down the same path as AC-130 Spectre gunship. It was a large cargo ship which was loaded with cannons, machine guns and two rail guns.

"We will be inserting and holding key positions until the army and other forces can reach us." Stated the officer "So prepare yourself."

 **Night was falling on Aquaria as Starbuck returned to her hotel room outside of the Tau'ri military base.** She had flown three training missions against first the Tau'ri Eagle fighters, then again Wraith Darts and Ori Fighters. The last two where interesting, the Wraith Darts where ungodly fast, faster then the Eagle was and it could turn tight but it had it could only fire directly in front of them. It had no missiles like the Eagle's did. She had scored very well against them and even better against the larger and slower tear shaped ORI fighter. At the end of the day she finished at number 1 on the charts. Her wing mate Justinian was not doing as good after scoring just outside the top 20 he had dropped down to 27th but had worked his back to 23rd with Goa'uld death gliders, Cylon Raiders and a tangle with a Tau'ri ship tomorrow he still had a chance to make the top 20 and earn a job.

Starbuck pushed those ideas out of her mind as she ordered some Sagittarian food from a place that delivered and sat down to watch some TV. As she flipped through the channels she stopped as she saw a pair of girls in bright red walking across the field, she watched for a moment before smiling.

"So they did reboot the Ploutons." said Starbuck as she remembered watching the family of Hade's worshippers. Hades as the Lord of the Underworld was the only Lord of Kobol without a patron world not even Earth and was hardly worshiped outside of funerals, so having a family of Hade's worshipers was funny in a twisted way. Which was why as a kid Starbuck loved it, she watched the reboot show with a smile on her face as she relaxed. The show had the Ploutons three children visiting an old abounded temple.

"I want to see a portal to the underworld." Said a voice off screen as the three Ploutons children moved forward until they found a boy and a girl about their age with a married couple. A woman in a thin pure black dress and a man black and white striped suit.

"Now Pugsley, no need to rush it is such a wonderful place." said the woman

"And it isn't often that we can journey to another world to see all that they have to offer." Said the man in the suit as suddenly to Kara's confusion a hand moving on it's own tugged at the man's shoulder. "Not now Thing."

"Dear, it looks like we have company." Said the woman as the man turned to see the Ploutons.

"Why hello we are the Addams family who are you?" inquired the man with a smile as the intro song began however it wasn't the one Kara had grown up with. This one was twisted with a whole new family mixed in with the one she knew and loved. Finally, when the titled card came up it said.

"The Ploutons meet the Addam's Family." read Starbuck with confusion. "What the Frak is going on?"

 **Far away from Aquaira Admiral Hackett looked at the revised battle plan put forward by first general Jagar and later by General Leong.** His staff had gone over it for the past few hours and the meeting was nearing an end. With a sigh he looked around the table at the men and woman gathered with him.

"Looks like the Race has decided to push this to a new level, you have all seen the plan and the time table will you be ready in time?" inquired Hackett, one by one everyone nodded.

"With time to spare." Confirmed the marine in the room.

"Alright then baring any sudden change the attack goes in in 6 hours, the fleet will break orbit and arrive over Ovea just before dawn and begin the assault." Stated Hackett "Dismissed."

 **Well I hope you liked this chapter, the war is coming to the Race much sooner then even the Tau'ri had planned for. Now until next time please keep reading. Thanks Wilkins75.**


	22. Chapter 22

**Chapter 22 Against a Thunderstorm**

Night had fallen over the capital city of the Tau'ri and most people were heading to bed or already there however around the stadium and the park which surrounded it there was more activity then normal. Surplus Puma recon vehicles and Conger APC sat around the stadium. The normal camo paint which would cover the vehicles had been replaced with black and white paint with words Police written in English, Spanish, German, Chinese and Russian clearly visible on it. They also had flashing red and blue lights attached to each of the vehicles. Since they this was the capital the police also severed as a reserved defense force if they had to as such they had a special defense group within the police force which had more of a military feel. It was this force which had been assigned protection duty for the Opochti refugees inside the stadium.

Officers within the protection force stood outside their vehicles wearing power armor which like their vehicles was painted black and white. They carried SIR-15 assault rifles and Vector V carbines along with the standard modernized 1911. While the normal officers carried almost nothing but stun rounds the officers in this squad carried about half stun half live rounds.

"I can't wait for this to be over." Said one of the officers as he and his patterner moved down a walkway in the park. The walkway was lite but with the sensors built into their armor they could see through the darkness which gripped the area outside of the lighted area.

"Your wife is driving you crazy again isn't she?" inquired his partner with a laugh.

"Yes, I mean our little girl is turning 2 she isn't going to remember her birthday party." Said the first officer all while shaking his head. "Why drop so much money on the party and the price for a clown is mind blowing?"

"It will make your wife happy." answered the second officer as a young couple moved past them the woman laughing at some unheard joke. For a while neither of them spoke but then one of them grabbed the other on the shoulder.

"What is it?" inquired the officer.

"Movement by that tree." said the second officer as they looked through the darkness to see one of the Opochti refuges by one of the trees. The Opochti had semi free reign, they had assigned areas which they were suppose to stay but they had freedom within that area. The Opochti was within that area but it was strange given the information the officers had on the Opochti people for one to be out after sunset and it was closer to midnight then sundown. The guards watched as the refugee picked up multiple branches which had fallen from the tree. The Opochti gathered up the branches and headed back toward the stadium area.

"What are they doing?" inquired the first officer as the two of them left the path and followed the refugee as they moved through the darkness they could see more of them carrying sticks and brush. Finally the officers stopped at the edge of a small clearing which was semi surrounded by trees to see what had to be a couple dozen Opochti all gathered around a large pile of brush and branches. They watched as one of them raised his or her hands toward the sky before another one started the pile of branches and brush on fire. As the flames began to glow casting shadows over the entire area the other Opochti lifted their hands toward the sky while bowing their heads. Then they started to sing but due to the added complication of singing the translation program inside the Tau'ri onboard computers couldn't make out the words.

"I have no idea what they are doing." Said the second officer both of them still alert as they watched the ceremony before them.

"Kind of reminds me of a religious ceremony of some kind." said the first as he opened a visual link to headquarters, his suits onboard helmet camera broadcasting the image back to command. With that he and his partner broke cover and headed toward the Opochti. With their heads down, eyes closed and singing filling the air none of them notice the pair of Tau'ri police officers who now stood on the edge of their gather. Both officers said nothing and while they didn't raised their weapons they both tensed up ready to bring their guns to a ready position if the worse should happen. Only when the singing stopped and the gathering lifted their heads back up did they notice the two Tau'ri. All of them jumped back in fear and two of them actually turned and ran into the darkness.

"Sorry, we don't intend to interrupt but what are you doing?" inquired the first officer

"We saw on your picture news box that your warriors and ours are going into battle." Said the one who seamed to be their leader. "We are calling on the ancestors of both our people and yours to join them in battle to lend strength to their arms and to aid them in any way possible. We are using the flame to call them from the wonderful afterlife to help."

"I see, do you need any more wood or brush?" inquired the second officer "I think the park department has a stored around here somewhere."

"You aren't going to stop us?" inquired one of the children in what the officers guessed to be amazement. "You aren't going to belittle or religion and call it fake?"

"No." said the first officer "I wish you would have had told us your plans, we would have set up some things but it is just a camp fire."

"The Race always belittled our ancestors and refused to let us worship." stated the priest "They turned our temples into their own and made us worship their Emperors. They arrested our priests and put out our holy fires, we had to carry out our religion in secret so we did so here."

"We understand, that has happened in our history as well." Said the second cop as he recalled stories from his native England of Roman Catholics Priests having to hide during some king's rule. He couldn't remember.

"We aren't going to do that, freedom of and from religion is a right here." added his partner as he got onto the radio and explained everything to command. "We will have some more firewood and the like brought up in a couple of minutes."

"Thank you for your kindness." Said the priest as the Opochti people went back to their worship while the two Tau'ri police officers stayed back a respectful distance and watched.

 **Fleet Lord Straha awoken hours before sunrise in the old drafty stone castle which had served as a home for the Vantic family which once ruled the surrounding area.** He moved down the stone staircase past multiple metal posts attached to the wall designed to hold lamps, the fire light lamps having been replaced with electrical power even so it was only a temporary job. With any luck in the next few days he will be able to ceremonial destroy this building as a sign of the full and final conquest of this world and build a proper place to govern the planet.

Males came to attention as he passed but none approached him and he showed them no mind. If one of them hadn't shown him the respect, he earned from his rank then he would have noticed and remembered. Instead he moved outside and into the darkness of the early morning. In the distance he could see the large stone slab which had the names of the males who had died in the conquest of Vantic 5. He scanned the area left on the wall before letting out a resigned hiss.

"Yes, there is enough room left for the males who died yesterday." Stated Straha to himself as he looked at the wall. Beside the wall stood a captured and disabled Vantic cannon, the weapon had to be loaded from the front and had to have gun powdered put in before a large metal ball was put it. It was a privative weapon that however did manage to kill a few males when the cannonball bounced on the ground after being fired. The weapon even managed to destroy a few armored vehicles by knocking out tracks and hitting the engine, however the crew lived when that happened. "Now they are somehow shooting down killer crafts and helicopters. Well…it will not matter come noonday the terrorist in Likna will die and the uprising will end and we can finally finish bringing this world fully into the Empire."

 **It started just before midnight on Ovea or as the Race called it Vantic 5 and was still going on even as dawn came ever closer, the infantry males which had been attacking the city of Likna began to pull back.** Since they still believed that the Opechti where the only forces they were facing they believed darkness was still on their side. They believed that using the cover of darkness and the natural Vantic habit to avoid the dark at all cost that they could pull back safety. When no shots rang out from the defenders the infantry males believed that they had been proven correct. They didn't realize that they Tau'ri had them in their sights and could have opened fire at any moment but instead they were letting them go. Underground in the Tok'ra tunnels which had become the bunkers and supply area for the defenders also sat the command and control.

"They almost totally out of the city." stated one of the drone operators as Colonel Drugov looked at the Race pull back to the starting positions of their assault.

"They are preparing to carry out their nuclear strike at midday today." Stated Prince Unia as the local freedom fighter looked at the Tau'ri local commander. On paper, he as Prince of the only Opochti kingdom not to surrender was technically in command, in true that was far from the case.

"That is the thing, they are pulling back but they don't seam to be pulling back far enough to avoid the effects of a nuclear strike." Stated Drogov as he studied the intel. "They are also bringing in more artillery, why would they put more of their forces inside the fall out zone of a nuclear strike."

"What does that mean?" inquired Prince Unia

"Nuclear weapons release radiation which is invisible but kills a person through radiation sickness. It may take years but you are just as dead." Explained Drugov as simply as he could as he thought about it. "We don't know how resistant the Race is to radiation, what may be a deadly amount of radiation to us may be ok levels to them or they could be using smaller tactical nuke."

Drogov turned his attention back to the map of the city, it was by Tau'ri standards a small city and compact. Everything had been built behind thick walls to defend the people who lived here from attack and the closer they were together the less space the wall had to cover.

"Yes, a single cruise missile level nuclear strike would whip us out." Stated Drogov as he wished he knew move about the nuclear warfare doctrine of the Race. He looked up at the clock and shook his head, it wasn't going to matter. He tapped his radio and was instantly linked to all commands with the city. "Move forward and make sure the Race is out of the city, take down the ones trapped within the city."

Out in the city Tau'ri special forces moved to take down the Race airborne troopers which where still trapped within the private homes that their helicopters had dropped them off above hours earlier. The soldiers of the Race had been kept down by railgun sniper fire which was capable of shooting through the walls of the Opochti houses. Believing that any threat would come from the street the living soldiers of the Race which averaged around 10 in each position guarded the ground level doors. They didn't even notice the darkened shapes moving on the rooftops. Using power armor a small group of Tau'ri jumped the distance between buildings to land on the roof and stormed the building starting from the top down. It was over within minutes as the forces of the Race within the walls where killed or captured. The new prisoners could only look at the Tau'ri with confusion before having their clawed tipped hands restrained and brought down into the tunnels.

"You ready to take back your world." stated Drogov as Prince Unia nodded his head in agreement.

 **The magical night was coming to an end as Acacia couldn't help but smile as her boyfriend Robert had his arm across her shoulders while her arm was on his side as they moved down the crowed Worlds Main Street at Disney World Vahalla.** They along with her best friend Medea and Robert's family were in the process of escaping the park after a firework/protection show which caped the night. The show also had these flying items which danced across the sky and formed patterns and even came together to make images. They changed colors from a bright bold red to a glowing gold and finally a rainbow color within seconds. It was unlike anything in the colonies.

"How did they do that?" whispered Acacia as Robert looked at her as they passed by an Mexican themed restaurant.

"Are you talking about the drones?" inquired Robert

"Drones, those didn't move like any drones I have ever seen and the color changing and how they moved." Countered Medea as she was pressed in behind the couple as they moved down the road toward the transport hub at the entrees.

"I am sure you have, they are the same drones that the navy uses on the warships." Said Robert as Medea and Acacia blinked as they remembered the images of swarms of blue glowing drones flying out of Tau'ri warships to destroy whole colonial taskforces. "They got them on surplus and they don't have a warhead and are not weaponized. Also Disney added the color changing ability but aside from those three things they are the same."

"So Disney could crush the colonial fleet." Said Acacia with a sigh, she wanted to be joking but as she passed by a shop which had something about the size of a dinner plate but projected a hologram of a Disney Character in this case a Fox and Rabbit both in police uniform that looked lifelike and moved every so often. That item sitting in a gift shop window was more advanced then anything in the colonial military had.

"Probably could and they aren't the only ones with modified military equipment." Admitted Robert as he paused for a moment. "The wildlife tour we are taking in two days uses modified Owls and already they have civilian versions of Pelican transports, Condor airliners and Hadrian class cargo ships and I read they are constructing luxury cruise ships at the Mars shipyards. That is only the ships, medical equipment and everything else has changed since I was a kid and things will only keep changing."

The ride back to their hotel was uneventful and neither Acacia nor Robert even to attempted to hid that they where sharing a room from Robert's family, after quickly getting ready for bed both of them where sound asleep.

 **For General Jager on Ovea he had long forgotten what sleep was and the pushed up time table wasn't helping him in that regards.** His time table had to be pushed up and he only had about 3/4th of the forces he wanted on the ground. If he had another day like planned he would have had all that he would have needed plus more but he didn't have time.

After doing one last check of the maps he moved down the line toward a large group of Opechti freedom fighters. They were of all things mounted one what looked to be giant rhinoceros beetles, the Opochti where mounted like a human would be on horse back and that is how Jager thought of them. He looked at the strange image of a Opochti freedom fighter who looked like a mantis sitting on top of a rhinoceros beetle both of them covered with colorful fabric and chainmail armor like European knights. They even had long spears and shields to finish the image.

"General Jager." Said the head of the mounted unit as he brought one of the beasts forward.

"You all ready?" inquired Jager

"We are ready to reclaim our home." said the warrior as of all things a group of ten Tau'ri soldiers moved up on horseback. One of them held a large standard with the Blue and Silver flag of the Tau'ri on it while the others held rifles and radios. It was another strange image seeing a soldier in power armor sitting on horseback. Jager's eyes moved toward where more Opocthi freedom fighter flew the bright orange and brown banner of the House of Unia.

"Good, head out we will meet you outside of Nysha." stated Jager as the soldiers saluted their general before moving out. The freedom fighters doing the same even if they didn't pull it off correctly. As the mounted warriors left the woods a small group of Tanks, APC and recon vehicles joined them.

Jager watched them go before he got into the copula of his Command Leopard III tank.

"Sir, If I may ask why the mounted soldiers?" inquired his driver.

"Well Spiro it helps us with the locals and this is their world so it is only right that they take front and center in the liberation of their capital city." stated Jager to his long time driver, his entire crew had been together for the most part since the invasion of the 12 colonies of Kobol. Spiro himself was colonial while the rest of the crew was from Germany. "They have a tradition of mounted warriors and part of that is allies must ride together into battle so we will ride with them."

"I see sir." Said Spiro as he looked out of the driver's compartment at the riders. "The PR people will love it at least."

"That is for sure." answered Jager as he looked around him one last time before spinning his hand around, the command was passed down without the use of radios. It was next to impossible that the Race could detect their radio communication, but he didn't want to take the chance. The tanks, armored vehicles and other weapons of war came to life, they didn't have the load roar of the older petroleum based cousins but the sound still caused a smile to cross his face. Then with a lurch the massive treads of the Leopard main battle tank moved forward, his tank was the first to clear cover the woods. Behind his tank came more tanks and APC, the Cougar APC had a sliding armored top which allowed the troops inside to stand up and fight. They could use the fire ports build into the side of the vehicle however in this case the soldiers where standing up to fight. This wasn't just because they wanted to but because in each of the APC was at least two Opechti freedom fighters armed with AK series rifles.

Due to the terrorist threats in Likna the Race shut down the highway separating the woods where the Tau'ri strike force had been building from the farmland around city. This made it only easier for the armor as they moved over the paved roads without being spotted by anyone. It also hid take off of the four hidden Osprey ground attack aircraft which had also been hiding in the woods. They took off and turned to the North before diving low to the deck, flowing them where multiple Adder attack helicopters following the faster Osprey's into battle. More Adders where coming out of the Gate and would follow Jager's armored assault.

The Osprey's flew below tree top level, which was easy considering outside of clusters of trees which grew taller than their Tau'ri counterparts the land was most devoid of plant life higher then shrubbery. They flew low and they flew fast as they neared the canyon the gained some height counting on the radar canceling paint to hide them from the Race's radar for the brief moment they were high enough to appear on it. Then with a roll they dove down into the canyon and began their twisting and turning flight plan which would take them toward their targets. Behind them Adder attack helicopters followed but their max speed was no where near the speed of the Ospreys and their role was to come in after the attack wings. They where on a long path which would lead them above the city of Nysha to the main military base for the area. Their mission was to destroy everything they could there to prevent the Race from reacting to the hammer blow which was coming outside of Likna just before dawn.

 **Unaware that the forces of the Tau'ri where already on the move Emperor Risson waited in the Imperial communication center.** The workers and technicians who normally didn't have a chance to see the Emperor from a distance yet alone so close. None of the technicians dared to approach the Emperor, they could tell from his body stance from his arms where crossed over his golden body paint and how his toe claws clicked on the floor told everyone he was not in a good mode. If that wasn't enough he kept one eye turret on the wall mounted clock.

Finally the elder protocol master entered the room only to stop in his tracks as he spotted his Emperor standing there.

"Your majesty." stated the Protocol Master "What are you doing here?"

"I wanted to see that you carried out my orders and so far you have failed to do so." hissed Emperor Risson.

"Forgive me your majesty but you ordered to contact the Tau'ri by Dawn and by Imperial protocol dawn isn't until the sun is fully over the horizon and that is still a few minutes off." explained the Protocol Master as Risson let out a hiss of anger.

"Do it now." ordered Risson

"Yes, your Majesty." said the Protocol Master as he went to the radio. He had to wait a moment while a technician switched it to the proper channel. "Attention Tau'ri Fleet Lord Hackett this is the Protocol Master of the his Majesty Emperor Risson, we wish to commutate with you the protocol for an audience with his Majesty Emperor Risson."

With that simple phrase everyone expected the Tau'ri to start talking at once but no response came. For the longest time nothing happened then the phone began to hiss as one of the technicians lifted up the phone and listened for a moment.

"It shall be done." said the technician, his tail stump actually started shaking which told Risson something was wrong. "Your majesty forgive me but the Tau'ri are gone."

"What do you mean?" inquired Risson as the technician backed away in fear, this was the Emperor who would play a part in judging his soul so having him angery at him was the last thing any member of the Empire wanted.

"Your majesty orbital tracking radar reports that a couple of minutes ago the Tau'ri warships broke orbit and are gone." reported the radio technician as Risson turned both eye turrets on the elderly Protocol Master.

"It would appear your majesty that the Tosevites have finally come to their sense and left the Empire alone." stated the Protocol Master

"You are a fool." Stated Risson as the technicians in the room all looked at their emperor stunned.

"Your majesty." started the Protocol Master only to be stopped by a raised hand from Risson.

"I expect your letter of resignation by sun down." stated Risson as the Protocol Master looked at him. "If you don't I will order you stripped of all rank and expelled palace and from the Race."

"Your Majesty." Started the Protocol Master, among the Race to have the rank stripped from any citizen was among the worse punishment one could get. To have it done by a director superior was bad enough but to have the Emperor himself do so was not only dooming the rest of your living life to shame but your afterlife was sure to be lost as well.

"You can claim age if you want that it will spare you the shame of being fired." Stated Risson "But you will be out of this palace and out of my sight by sunrise tomorrow."

 **Just outside of the Ovea system or as the Race called it the Vantic system six Hadrian class transports exited hyperspace**. They where too far off for the radar systems of the Race to notice them but they where well within position. Among the group of six Hadrian transports where two Galahad class destroyers. The Galahad where assigned to protect the convoy of unarmed transports which was standard orders for all shipping done within Tau'ri space. All civilian and military cargo shipping that left their solar systems had to be escorted in convoys so that they could help each other incase something went wrong and to protect themselves from any pirates.

The six Hadrian's opened up both of their large cargo rooms to reveal that the decks where covered not with shipping containers but instead row after row of Owl transports each one carrying a 15 men strong platoon of marines or army rangers. Eagle fighters and Condor bombers along with larger Pelican transports came out of hyperspace as well as the task force from Mars formed up. Due to the range the Eagle fighters where nearing the outer limit of their fuel range but this had been prepared for as two of the Pelicans extended large arms, two under each wing and a center one for a total of 5. The Eagles moved in an began to refuel as they moved ever closer to the attack time. Once the refueling process was done the strike force entered hyperspace with the expectation of the Hadrian class transports, the Galahad class destroyers and the refueling Pelicans.

A minute after heading into hyperspace the strike force exited hyperspace inside of the Opechti system. The system was a mess, with three large asteroid belts with the thickest of the asteroid belts just outside of the Ovea home world. The Race had cleared out large corridors for their ships to move through safely without the risk of running into an asteroid. The small Tau'ri attack force moved into the asteroid belt and began to move into a striking position. The closer the strike force got the better view of the world and the targets over the planet. The ships of the Race where on the average massive in size about the size of a battleship or a colonial Battlestar. Unlike the Tau'ri battleship or the Colonial Battlestar few of this massive ships had ship to ship or anti-air weapons, they only had space to ground missiles systems which would be useless against the Tau'ri attacking force. The ships of the Race where large siting ducks waiting to be destroyed and each duck was assigned to the Condors as they waited to carry out their attack.

 **Down on the planet the Ospreys roared down the canyon in the early morning light.**

"Watch the edges, I don't want anyone slamming into the ground we are coming up toward the narrowest part so tighten up." Said the flight leader as the flight of Ospreys tightened up as they prepared to make the final turn which would bring them into view of the Race built bridge over the canyon. As they headed down the canyon, the distant sun was starting to illuminate the side of the canyons which glowed a deep rich reddish brown mixed with darker browns, blacks and even so white marble. It was a beautiful mix of colors which anyone could enjoy.

In fact it was something the Race found beautiful and one of the most popular places to view it was at the Emperor Risson Bridge. The massive 8 lane bridge stretched across the canyon allowing easy travel from one side to another. It had multiple viewing platforms and walking paths as well on the bridge and popular eating spots where located beside it with morning dinning being the most popular time to eat at the locations. With the sunlight bouncing off the rockface it was a sight to turn both eye turrets to as the Race would call it.

"Waiter I want more water." hissed a lawyer as she sat across from her friend.

"At once superior female." Hissed the Vantic who had taken up the job of waiter, he moved away to go get the drink.

"You look troubled Felless." hissed the lawyer "I know you have been through a lot with this attack but you are ok."

"I know and I thank you for bringing me here so that I can relax but I can't get the image of those creatures out of my head." stated the senior researcher.

"I understand, you awoke to find yourself under attack and it is understandable that your mind filled in…." started her lawyer friend

"I am not making this up I saw…." started Felless before a male at a nearby table spoke up.

"What is that?" He hissed as Felless turned an eye turret toward the natural wonder outside of the dinner. She kept one eye locked on her friend and the other looking away for a brief moment and then she snapped both eye turrets and her whole head toward the canyon. Four dark shapes had appeared in the distance around a corner. At first she thought it was a helicopter tour group, however those traveled alone not in groups of four and they were never allowed near the bridge. Then the four crafts leveled out and she was able to see them head on. There was no spinning blades over them and in fact she could see dark shaped of what had to be engine pods above the wings.

"What are those?" inquired the lawyer as they came closer and closer until with a roar of engines the aircraft flew under the bridge at high speed. As they passed Felless was able to see that they were indeed painted black but under their wings where clearly visible missiles.

"Must be some thrill seekers but I have never seen that type of aircraft before." stated the lawyer who clearly hadn't noticed the weapons under the wings. "I hope the police arrest those law breakers, they ruined a perfectly good morning meal."

Before Felless could speak up the TV which was located by the bar turned from showing the morning news to the image of a strange creature sitting behind a desk. It had yellowish brown fur on the top of its head and pink soft skin.

"Is that a Tosevite?" inquired someone who knew a lot more the she did.

"Good day I am President Samantha Carter of the Tau'ri alliance, I am speaking to you now because of the threat made by your Fleet Lord Straha against the Opechti people to use Nuclear weapons on the city of Likna." Said this Carter in a computer translated voice of the Race while subtitles ran under her image. "This is an unacceptable threat and must be dealt with, if your forces on Opechti or as you call it Vantic 5 do not surrender unconditional within the next 10 minutes we will have no choice but to force you out."

With that the image changed back to the news as everyone in the dinner gave a full laugh at the threat.

"I wonder who had the brilliant idea to show us a Tosevite as one of these Tau'ri creatures that the crawlers keep on about." Laughed a male as others went back to their meal. "Whoever it is by the Emperor they should write fiction."

Then to the amazement of the people in the dinner the news broadcasts went out, the head waiter flipped through channels but nothing was coming through.

"Must be a solar storm?" inquired the lawyer going to the only thing that she could think of but there was a sinking feeling inside Felless as she feared what was really happening.

Over Vantic 5 Shuttlecraft pilot of the Race Nesseref double checked to make sure her shuttle craft door was sealed. Then she released the docking control and began to power away from the massive starship which was in orbit over the world she now called home.

"This is shuttlecraft 183 returning to Nysha." Reported Nesseref to the military ships hovering over the capital city of the Race. She scanned an eye turret over the control panel as the computer flight control began to take her down for a landing. With her free eye she looked out toward space and thought for a moment she could see a glow in the distance. She turned both eye turrets toward the glow and notice other glowing engines moving within the asteroid belt at speeds which was impossible. She was about to hit her radio when sudden a voice came over the wireless. She listened for a moment as someone claiming to be a President Carter of the Tau'ri ordered the Race to surrender. She blinked multiple times and looked back to where she had seen the glow of engines only to see…nothing.

"I must be tired." said Nesseref as the shuttle craft moved under one of the large warships of the conquest fleet on a path which would take it back to Nysha to pick up another cargo load. She attempted to radio her flight position only to find no response on coming over her radio. She switched channels only to find that one dead as well. "That should be impossible."

 **Across the world the Race laughed at the joke threat of the Tau'ri and overall went back to what they had been doing.** For the soldiers gathered around Likna it was for the most part preparing to shell the city if they didn't surrender by noon. Males where for the most part up and about having a good meal and enjoying watch the sun rise. None of them noticed the new shapes in the nearby farmer field and those who did paid them no attention. They were clearly vehicles and the crawlers couldn't even drive so there was no way that was anything more then a group of their land cruisers. The fact that they looked different was brushed off as seeing them at a distance and the crops around the vehicles messing up the profile.

"Look a banner!" yelled multiple soldiers as they pointed toward the city of Likna, there a crawler had appeared on the broken remains of the wall. In his hands was a long staff with the banner of the house of Nysha hanging from it.

"Just you wait, any moment now we will see a banner of surrender." laughed a male of the race as suddenly a creature appeared beside the crawler. He stood on two legs not four, he was as tall as a crawler and wore strange wrappings. In his hand was a flapping blue and silver flag.

"What is that?" inquired multiple males as they got their first good look at a Tau'ri. Then another crawler appeared this one holding up a bright red banner, the red banner of war.

On the walls the Tau'ri special forces member held his flag with pride as he stood shoulder to shoulder with the freedom fighters.

"Well we just declared war officially by all the laws and customs of your people." said Drogov as he and Prince Unia waited for the fireworks to begin. They didn't have to wait long.

None of the Race knew they where under attack until it was too late, as one the front line of Leopard main battle tanks fired their main cannon. For those soldiers who had an eye turret facing the Tau'ri attack force when they fired all they saw as a line of flashes as the main weapon on each tank fired. The heavy shell flew out of the barrel and covered the distance to their targets with ease each one getting a direct hit on their targets. This caused a smile to cross General Jager's face as his force decimated the rear guard of the race. Tank turrets flew toward the sky as their crews died within them, artillery pieces disappeared in fireballs along with the crews manning the large guns. The lighter armored APCs stood no chance as the heavy rounds ripped them open like tin cans. The ground soldiers where in a state of shock but to their credit they did hit the ground and began to fire back with small arms. However small arms was just above useless against armor and the Tau'ri responded with heavy machine gun fire as their tanks began to move forward to engage those targets which had been out of range in the opening moments. Then the Adder attack helicopters came rolling in and firing at everything that wasn't Tau'ri or Opochti in nature.

Either way it was a slaughter, the Race hadn't expected an attack most of all from a force outside of the city and from an enemy sitting behind armor. The smaller Tau'ri force began to wrap up the much larger forces of the Race leaving nothing but twisted wrecks behind their armored advance.

 **Up in space it was even worse since they never expected anything to happen to them**. Most of the large warships of the Race, each one taking years to build never saw the ships that fired death at them. The radar operators onboard could hardly believe what they were seeing as suddenly missiles came streaking out of the asteroid belt toward them. They had no idea that each of the massive clusters of missiles came from a single Tau'ri Condor bomber which fired off their missiles until their bomb bays and wing mounted racks where empty.

Nesseref saw them, saw the glowing streaks of missiles coming toward the ships and couldn't believe it. Like every pilot who had graduated training they knew the protocols for everything that could convincible go wrong in space. Incoming missiles was something not covered in the protocols. The ship lords onboard those warships and their crew had no idea what to do and having no idea what to do they did nothing. That meant that it ranked among the easiest missions for the Condor pilots as their missiles slammed into the side of the warships of the Race. The missiles didn't explode on impact instead similar to a ground penetrator bomb the missiles powered their way into a ship before exploding. This exposed more decks to the vacuum of space, like every ship within the empire the warships of the conquest fleet was built with a honeycomb of seals that could lock out decks if exposed to space. It was designed to save the ship and the bulk of the crew incase of an accident, it failed here. It failed because in the imagination of the designers it was impossible that more than a single accidental explosion could happen. Even so they designed the ships to take six hits, each of the massive ships took dozens of hits and the blows the ships where taking were far deeper then more powerful then anything imagined by the designers. So like ships taking on too much water the decks failed and within moments the Conquest fleet warships above Nysha and Likna were destroyed or disabled.

"Move!" yelled one of the Eagle pilots as the Eagles swooped out of their cover and headed toward the planet with the Owls and Pelican transports right behind them. If the sudden attack wasn't enough to amaze the citizens of the Empire in orbit around Vantic 5 it got only worse as suddenly multiple new contacts appeared just outside of the corridors through the asteroid belts. They where about to radio the Conquest fleet forces on the ground when their radios came alive.

"This is Admiral Hackett of the Tau'ri 7th fleet, we are here to liberate the Opechti people if you attempt to stop us we will have no choice but to cause more damage to you surrender now and prepare to be bordered." said a voice over the radio as the contacts outside of the asteroid belt only kept growing in numbers.

Shuttle pilot Nesseref couldn't believe what her eyes where seeing, from her current location she had a perfect up-close view of the destruction of one of the mighty warships of the Conquest fleet and she could see a half dozen more ships that had been destroyed as well. Reacting on instinct as well as protocol to return to the ground when an unexpected event happened she began to descend back to Vantic 5. As her shuttle craft was engulfed in reentry heat she could look out and see multiple other crafts all heading down toward the planet as well. None of them where designed by the Race.

"By the Emperor what is going on?" hissed Nesseref in amazement and in fear.

 **The Ospreys roared over the lip of the canyon and climbed over a small one story high building before leaving out.** In the distance they could see a large military base, it had a set up not much different then what it would have been like on Earth. Three runways with hangers and out buildings spread out, a control tower near the center. The runway was covered with sitting fighter jets and bombers all sitting in perfect rows out in the open.

"This is too easy." said the lead pilot as he switched one his targeting system and locked on to one of four missile AA systems which sat in the open and judging from his view. There weren't even any missiles on the launchers instead they sat waiting to be loaded nearby. He pulled the trigger as his missile flew off his wing and within seconds it slammed into the launcher causing it to go up in a giant fireball. His wing mates launched their own missiles at the other launchers destroying them. With them gone he switched to his gun and the heavy machine cannon came to life as it began to spit out death. Since all these aircrafts where just sitting in a straight row he held the trigger longer then normal as he ran his gun over ten aircraft in a second pass. He and his squadron flew past the base before winning around for another pass as they did he saw just how much destruction their one pass had done and there was more to come.

 **Prince Unia couldn't believe his very eyes, the forces of the Race where being absolutely slaughtered, the land cruisers which had rolled over the forces of the Opechti kingdoms with ease where being themselves destroyed.** The Tau'ri land cruisers called Tanks were like giant monsters destroying smaller monsters. They mowed down the soldiers of the Race and then something he had never seen before happened. Infantry males of the Race threw down their weapons and raised their hands as they surrendered to the rolling death.

"By the ancestors." said Prince Unia as he and his warriors moved out of the city, all around him the forces of the Race, the same force which had conquered his world had brushed aside the mightiest armies that the Opochti people could field where being brushed aside. The Tau'ri had the same type of flying machines which rained death from above with ease. As they looked around one of the massive land cruisers of the Tau'ri rolled up toward them and came to a stop. For a moment nothing happened and then out of the top hatch came a figure he knew, General Jager.

"Looks to be a good day take back your world." stated Jager as a cheer went up among the freedom fighters as a day they thought would never come actually came.

 **Well I hope you liked this chapter, I am nearing the end of this story and soon the next story the Mass Effect Story will begin. I have already started working on that, my current estimate is that there will be between 3 and 5 more chapters in this story followed by a short break before I start the next one. Now until next time please keep reading. Thanks Wilkins75.**


	23. Chapter 23

**Chapter 23 Angels on High**

The sounds of explosions could be heard in the distance but for the soldiers of the race manning the roadblock on the highway leading toward Likna from the Capital of Nysha it was nothing to be concerned about. They had heard explosions before as their fellow males did battle with the terrorists claiming the city as their own. They were more concerned with the large group of males and females who were attempting to break the roadblock in order to make their own lives better.

"Are you stupid, why would I have to drive an extra two hours out of my way to by pass the crawler's uprising." stated an irate semi-driver as his truck sat engine running behind him. "I have important items that I have to get to the stores on time and the only way that will happen is by going down that road."

"The road is closed because of terrorist activities." stated the head male for the thousands time that day.

"But the road doesn't even pass within Likna, surely the road is safe if the crawlers are trapped within the city walls." Countered the driver.

"Orders from the Fleet Lord, the road is closed." stated the small unit commander as a female pushed her way toward the front of the crowd gathered before the group of Soldiers and police which formed the roadblock to keep the road closed to all but approved traffic. He scanned her body paint which told him she was of all things a tour group leader.

"Excuses me, but I have a group visiting up from the South and we need to visit that observation tower there." Stated the tout guild as she pointed toward a small rise less then a quarter of a mile down the road. It wasn't much to look at, a small gentle rise in the ground which the highway went right over but to the side was a stone watchtower that rose about the ground from the top of the rise.

"You want to see that?" inquired the small unit commander as he looked at the ugly building, it was shaped like a tringle and had unneeded decorations on it. "Why?"

"Like I said I am leading a tour of vacationers from the South and they want to see some of the works that the crawlers made before we arrived." stated the guild "And more importantly if we don't visit that it throws our entire schedule off."

"Sorry but orders from the fleet Lord, you nor anyone else can go down this road past this point." Stated the small unit commander "Now move along."

 **Just on the other side of that rise a large group of Opochti freedom fighters rode on top of their great war mounts as they moved to retake their planet.** In the lead was a fighter carrying the brown and orange banner of the Nysha royal family and the last free Prince Unia. Mixed in with the now almost 200 strong mounted warriors was a small group of Tau'ri forces on horseback one carrying the blue and silver Tau'ri flag. The two banners where very different the Opochti people didn't have flags like the Tau'ri or other powers had, instead they had what looked more like banners which the strapped down to poles they carried into battle.

"Man will you look at this." said one of the Tau'ri as he looked around at the almost 200 warriors. Some of them looked like twisted knights riding giant rhino beetles while others looked like farmers who had joined the fight. Some wore metal armor, some wore farming cloths. Some had long spears and curved swords, while others had sharpened fire harden wooden poles and farming tools. "Kind of reminds me of stories my great grandmother told me that her own grandfather or was it great grandfather told her about the civil war."

"Well I am sure the confederates didn't ride armored beetles capable of going almost 50 miles an hour." stated the head of the little Tau'ri front force, Captain Kasumi Goto as she looked at the giant beasts. They did look like Rhino beetle and the one nearest to her had its long front horn covered with metal armor sharpened to a point. She had spent some time talking with one of the warriors and while it was hard to get a good understand it seemed that these beasts where their versions of horses and while they couldn't go long or median distance like horses could the Uliania as they called them beat horses in sprints. She had even heard stories from these warriors of armored Uliania riders driving the horns of their beasts into the side of tanks and destroying them.

"True, I must admit Captain I am surprised you know how to ride a horse. Not many chances I assume in Japan." stated the man as she rolled her eyes under her helmet.

"I am not from Japan, I am from Argentina." corrected Goto as her suburbanite looked at her as if he could see her face through her helmet. "My Grandparents on both sides moved there after WW2 to raise cattle a lot of Japanese did. My brother followed their example and has a ranch on Mars if that interests you."

"Oh…I understand." said the man as the intelligence officer shook her head and looked back down the road. A rise was coming up and on top of it was a stone look-out tower that was maybe 175ft to 200 ft tall with a low wall around it. It was well positioned to look over the road which the Race had remade in their own image. From there defenders could see threats to the city of Nysha coming from miles away and alert the city. The Race had foolishly not set any defenders on it and instead placed their line on the other side they were going to pay for that mistake.

They moved up the gentle rising slop and when they reached the crest Goto could see in distance what passed for skyscrapers among the race. They looked like giant rectangle blocks dropped down behind a medieval style wall. From this distance she could make out nothing that made one of the buildings stand out from any of the others. It was a uniform shape and design with none of the individuality that could be found in Tau'ri cities. The sameness took away any real interest in the city to her eye. The distance between their current location to the city to be about ten miles or so.

She turned her attention away from the city down toward the road and to the large group of lizards about a quarter of a mile from their current location. She could see four tanks, about 16 APC and about two dozen other military vehicles. There were actually more cars flashing yellow and red lights and the tanks and APCs had all their weapons pointing away from them.

"Looks to be a mostly police line." stated Goto "And they have all their guns pointing away from us. They didn't expect an attack here."

"Well this should be fun." said the solider beside her carrying the Tau'ri flag as they moved forward.

 **A rush of alarm ran through the crowd of civilians as they saw the line of mounted terrorist appear on the nearby rise.** When they appeared none of those foolish males and females who had been hissing out their protests wanted to go forward. For the males of the race all veterans of the battlefields to take this world all opened their mouths and without making a sound laughed at the reaction of the civilians.

"Remain calm." Stated the head of the squad as the soldiers moved toward their vehicles at a calm measured pace. There was no need to rush, they could cut down these terrorists with machine gun fire like crops at harvest time. They had done it before, they mowed down who armies much larger then this without having a single male get hurt in any real way.

"Those poor animals they have no choice in this." stated one of his males as he moved toward the machine gun mounted on his Infantry Carrier. The commander looked at the line of terrorists and felt as well pity, pity not for the terrorists but for the beasts they rode. Then he spotted a group near the center which was off. They were thin animals not the massive beasts and they were not the right color. These creatures where different colors then the gun metal grey of the beasts, the terrorist riding them where not right either, he couldn't make them out well enough but the banner one carried was an actual flag not the type the crawler used.

He moved forward walking in front of two Land cruisers which flanked one of the pair of lanes which headed toward Likna. He raised his binoculars to his eye turret and the image leaped toward him and instantly he wondered if he was seeing what he thought he was seeing. The beasts had fur on them and had people on them who were clearly not crawlers or any other race within the empire. He saw one of them raise a hand and raised a single finger toward him, it appeared to be the middle one. Then he saw that all of the small band had assault rifles, they were different than the ones he had but it was clearly assault rifles. Nothing about the image made any sense.

"By the Emperor what is going on?" inquired the commander as he looked around none of his males or the police force under his command seemed to have realized something was off. They where moving slowly as if there was no threat and they likely didn't think there was any. He was about to get on his radio but then a cry came over the field, he looked to see the mass of mounted warriors rushing down the rise toward them. He could see the turrets of the land cruisers spinning around to face the oncoming threat but before the guns of the Race could open up a screeching sound filled the air. It took the race far longer then what it should have to realized what was happening and by then it was too late.

Rockets fired from Tiger mobile launch vehicles exploded a hundred feet above their heads. Each one of the rockets carried hundreds of small bomblets which fell themselves over the battlefield. Each one of the bomblets had a promising fuse which blew up either on contact with a target or 3 feet off the ground. Since the tallest member of the Race was about 4 and half foot with the average being about a foot less that meant all these thousands of bomblets exploded right at head high. It was a slaughter with body parts of now dead soldiers and some unlucky civilians sent flying through the air. The vehicles even the land cruisers exploded when bomblets hit their fuel supply from above.

To the horror of the Race who had been far enough away to live through the blast, coming out of the smoke with their banners whipping around in the fire and smoke was the charging mass of Crawler terrorists.

"Spirits of Emperors Past save us!" yelled a female but her Emperors where not listening to her as out of the smoke came not more Crawlers but land cruisers. These Land Cruisers where much larger than the Race and with even a simple glace of the eye turret one could see that the creatures standing up in the open commander's copula was neither a member of the Race or crawler but something else. More vehicles came rushing out of the smoke, Infantry carriers of a design totally different then the Race and recon vehicles as well.

A few brave police officers attempted to stop the oncoming threat the only way they knew how. Since none of them where armed with anything more than a riot baton they raised their hands up ordering them to stop. To a male or female of the Race which been taught from birth to obey orders from above would had stopped them. It didn't even slow them down.

Then the Opochti freedom fighters rammed into them, the massive animals plowed through the stunned race and before the eyes of multiple Tau'ri they sent some of their oppressors flying through the air like rag dolls as their rhino beasts used their horns as weapons a poor few actually got impaled by the horn. As for the civilians, the Tau'ri didn't aim at them but as for the Opochti they were just as big of oppressors as the soldiers.

"We need to keep moving leave them alone, it is the city we want." Ordered the freedom fighter leader as he aimed his spear toward their capital city of Nysha. "Take the city and we liberate our world. To the city!"

That got them moving as the freedom fighters moved forward as the Tau'ri armored thrust rushed forward moving past the mounted riders. The Puma recon vehicles taking up front most position as they rushed to secure the opening in the wall which the highway went through. Once they took that opening they could advance into the city itself, if the Race could amass forces in that gap they could cause the Tau'ri a lot of trouble, so the race was on to take the gap.

They had cleared the military line and now had to deal with civilian traffic on the road. This could have slowed down their advance as the Tau'ri vehicles swiveled around terrified and confused driver but they had prepared. While a handful of Pumas did rush forward to secure their target moving to the main body of the advance where 7 Cougar APCs, while not as fast as their Puma cousins the these vehicles had an extra surprised. Instead of the normal troop compartment which could carry between 12 and 16 people, these vehicles had extra power cells. With a push of a button low shields just a hair taller than the vehicles themselves appeared to the front and formed a wedge shape in front of the vehicle. They where designed originally to take down Colonial mine fields but they had a different role in this operation.

"Gentlemen lets plow the road!" laughed the woman driver in the lead vehicle as the APCs moved forward in a tight V and that is what they did. They plowed the road clear of cars like a snow plow would clear it from snow. The cars of the Race which didn't get out of the way slammed into the shields and where forced out of the way.

"This is way more fun than snow removal duty!" laughed another driver, which some of the mine sweepers had basically become.

Ahead of them a small strike force of Puma recon vehicles rushed down the streets as fast as they could go. They weaved in and out of traffic and as they headed toward the city, the stunned drivers on the road couldn't believe what they were seeing. Even after the Tau'ri patrol passed by a column of military trucks and shot it up as they went did the Race refuse to believe what they were seeing.

 **Fleet Lord Straha heard distance booms and turned to look in the direction of the sound.** At first, he assumed that it was the Artillery opening fire on the rebels within Likna only to stop when he realized he was looking in the wrong direction.

"What is going on?" stated Straha as he saw smoke rising from what was likely the military base. "By the Emperor those terrorists will pay for that, maybe I will drop an explosive metal bomb on them now."

Then with a roar a strange black aircraft shot over the stone castle which had become the ceremonial center of the Race rule on Vantic 5. The aircraft banked around the sky before roaring back over the castle and the governmental buildings which surrounded it before heading back toward the military base. Smoke was now rising from the area, for a second Straha just stood there looking the dark craft as it headed back toward the base. He could make out at least two more of those crafts airborne over the capital, all around him the males and females which made the government here on Vantic 5 work came out of their buildings. They began to look in confusion at the rising smoke and the distance booms coming from the base.

"An accident? Maybe a fire broke out in an armory?" offered one male, an accountant by the body paint. He likely was a member of the conquest fleet but having worked in pay role had never even had to fire his gun.

"Either way we need to get those fire under control and see what damage was done." stated a female who wore the paint of an educational official.

"By the Emperor we need to also find out how to prevent this from happening again." added an infantry male, he must have been on guard duty and like a lot of other males he was carrying his rifle slung over his back.

"We are under attack." stated Straha letting out a low hiss in amazement and confusion as his mind began to try to come to grips with that idea. It was trying to fit a square peg in a round hole it just didn't make any sense. The Race was the most advanced, the most powerful empire in the galaxy who could challenge them?

More roars filled the air as Straha looked to the east to see large black shapes heading toward the city. These airborne crafts where much larger and slower than that fast killer craft which had flown overhead. These looked like the cargo transport aircraft that he had to move around males and equipment, but he saw no engine pods under the wings. That confused him until he watched five of the six which flew overhead go past. Then he saw the glow of engines coming from the wings themselves and he understood that the engines must be in the wings themselves. One of this eye turrets followed the sixth aircraft as he circled around the government complex and then he spotted them. Along the sides of this strange craft where multiple guns and cannons.

"A transport firebase?" asked Straha in amazement, the race had never considered using a cargo transport aircraft as an offensive weapon. He didn't want to believe it but then he saw the flash as the large gun on the aircraft spoke, followed moments later by a boom as a nearby building took a direct hit. The glass and concrete structure exploding and giving way as the round blasted through the roof before exploding within the structure. Some males reacted faster than normal showing they had been on the front lines not just rear area operations and raised rifles and fired up at the aircraft. All they managed to do was to get whoever was operating those weapons attention. Within moments the perfectly maintained and organized park which sat between the buildings was taking machine gun fire like nothing Straha had ever seen before.

He ran as fast as his legs would take him and got under the massive stone arch which span over the main enters to the castle. Even here he could feel the bullets from that machine gun slam at untold speed onto the stone. To the credit of the Vantic who made the stone castle above him, the stones held up to the fire. Out in the field the males and females caught in the open was shown no mercy as they where cut down. The soldiers went down with rifles firing but went down just like everyone else.

"By the Emperor what is going on!" yelled Straha as another building took a direct hit by the same large gun which had destroyed the first building. It was a nearly identical performance with the only difference being that only one side of the building fell into a mound of rubble while the other half caught fire.

A brave male rushed out with a shoulder fire missile and to the amazement of Straha he didn't shoot after the normal 20 second lock on time. When he yelled at him asking way the male turned and looked at him.

"Exulted Fleetlord I am not getting a target lock and the weapon will not fire!" yelled the solider a moment before his entire body was turned into bloody pulp when it was racked by machine gun fire from the attacking aircraft. To add insult the warhead of the missile exploded causing what was left of the doomed male to be consumed by a fireball.

 **On board the Pelican the crew was working overtime as the rail gun, heavy cannon and rapid firing gattling guns mowed down the area around the castle.** Intelligence reported that there was some civilians in the area but they worked for the military in one way or another and just like any civilian who worked at a military base they should expect to be targets in a war. A few soldiers tried to lock on with portable anti-air missiles but a combination of the radar blocking systems, stealth paint and heat suppression made the Race's version of that weapon impossible to lock on the Pelican. Either way none of the crew wanted to be down there, a single one of their gattling guns could cover the area of a football field with bullet holes every 2 inches in 45 seconds and they had four of them on top of their twin cannons and two rail guns for good measure.

As the crew kept firing a song was playing out of large speakers built into the sides of the aircraft, they were there to fill those bellow with fear. In truth it was more often used by the crew to listen to music while they blew stuff up.

"Why do we have to listen to this crap!" yelled one of the gunners "This song came out what in the 60s?"

"Puff the Magic Dragon is a staple for gunships, the first one was nick named that in Vietnam." Countered the co-pilot

"Doesn't mean I want to listen to it!" yelled a gunner as he fired into a building below with the rail gun. With one shot it exploded sending shards of glass and concrete flying. "Change it!"

"Fine." Said the co-pilot as he it the next button on the Ipod attached to the player, after a couple of seconds the next song began playing.

"Baby, baby, baby, oooh." Sang the speakers until the pilot hit the next button.

"I refuse to listen to that crap while we are blowing stuff up and if I ever find out who keep putting that back on the shuffle list I will throw them out of this aircraft in low orbit with no parachute." Snapped the pilot as the next song began playing.

"If you want to get out alive, run for your life." The music played as the crew keep raining death from above, every so often a bullet from a rifle would hit the side of the pelican, all it did was annoy the Tau'ri inside as they rained down death from above.

 **Other Pelicans moved over the capital city and lined up on the now burning Race military base and the nearby space port.** There was no attempt to land instead the sides and back ramps of the aircraft was lowered and as one the Rangers leaped out into the air. Their parachute opened up at once and they began to drift down toward the runway. The Race soldiers where still trying to get a grip on what was happening and with all the smoke from the burning aircraft most didn't notice the descending Tau'ri. While paratroopers was an idea the Race had, they had never used it in any of the last three invasions using helicopters instead.

The Rangers landed on the runway and cut away their shoots as they landed. They raised weapons and began to move out in a well-practiced operation, all these men and women had trained to take airfields in the past and most had done so in the Colonial War. They moved forward their visor systems pricing the smoke and the darkness covering the field from that smoke. They began to drop the Race with ease as they moved to take the field. Only when the first males began to fall from gunfire did the Race realize that they were under attack from the ground level. Most of the males on the base near the runway where ground crew members and didn't carry rifles instead having pistols, some didn't even carry pistols. They were inexperienced soldiers going up against specially trained Tau'ri rangers who quickly began to take control of the airbase.

Just across a highway and with a large parking lot separating the two was the civilian shuttle port. This was also a target of the Tau'ri forces, here it was even easier for the Tau'ri. With only a few police officers and most of which had at most a baton to enforce the law had no chance against the Tau'ri. A few officers did try to stop the Tau'ri only to get elbowed out of the way as the Tau'ri moved to take the airfield.

 **Killer crafts of the Race which had been lucky enough to be airborne at the time of the sudden attack where running for their lives.** These black killer crafts had dived on them from above and had ripped them apart.

"This is killer craft pilot Teerts please resound." Ordered Teerts over the radio as he scanned the skies for these strange crafts.

"Flight leader we need an airstrike on the…." Came a voice back only to cut off without any real orders given. Teerts scanned the sky and the ground and couldn't believe what he was seeing. A column of land cruisers moving down the streets of Nysha and they where not the Race's land cruisers. That is when he saw a larger black aircraft firing down on the governmental center in the heart of the city. He aimed one of this missiles but to his amazement he got no missile lock.

"By the Empiror what is going on!" yelled Teerts as he noticed too late one of those strange killer crafts diving on him. The last thing he saw was golden flashes from the cannons on the Killer Craft which killed him.

"Got him!" yelled the Tau'ri pilot as the fighter jet of the Race fell burning from the sky, having been taken out by a couple rail gun rounds. The burning wreck fell from the sky and actually hit what looked to be a gas station of some kind causing a massive fireball of bluish flame to shoot up into the sky. As the hydrogen fuel station burned the tail fine of the Killer Craft could be seen sticking out of the fire the imperial crest of the Race viable on the back fin. It was being repeated across the planet as the pilots of the Race who managed to get airborne where torn apart from the combat hardened pilots of the Tau'ri.

 **Admiral Hackett stood on the bridge of the Missouri as the Tau'ri battleship moved into position, all around the 7** **th** **fleet was moving into position.** The ships of the Race where slow, bulky and aside from a handful had no offensive weapons. They where easy prey and the Tau'ri where taking them out of play with ease. They didn't fire missiles or use beam weapons instead teams of marines beamed on board each ship and took command of the ships bridges. Since the Race built their ships to be almost identical it was easy for the marines to beam on board the ships and take control. Once the ship's bridges where under Tau'ri control most of them fell in line without much more effort. The warships did tend to put up more a fight but the Race was not ready for a fight and they where going up against the Tau'ri armed forces and while they where not the largest force in the galaxy they where the strongest.

Hackett lifted a cup of coffee up to his lips and took a deep drink as he looked at the planet below, while there was greener on it then the Race's home world it wasn't the place a place he would want to live. He shrugged his shoulders a bit, wondering why the Race would have wanted Earth in the first place aside from the deserts it wasn't a place they would have liked. The entire view shifted as the Missouri turned so that instead of pointing directly at the planet it came along side it.

"It is going to be a massive pain to move the colonist there back to their home." stated Hackett to himself as looked away from the planet down to the report in his hands. The Race had sent over 80 million of citizens to colonize Ovea and they had time to have children and for those children to have children as well. Those colony ships had become cargo transports traveling back and forth between the worlds of the Empire and some had been torn apart to be used for building supplies. "We will likely have to use the gate to get these people off world and the whole animal life problem, that may never be solved and I don't even want to attempt to deal with the plant issues."

"Admiral Hackett we have moved into position to begin to fire at assigned targets." stated an officer as Hackett nodded his head. All across the fleet targets where being locked on, the powerful sensors quickly identified some of the buildings the Race used. Here the Race's habit of building every type of a kind of building to look the same helped, once something like a nuclear power plant was identified all the Tau'ri had to do was find the matching buildings spread out across the planet.

All over the ship large railgun emplacements moved into firing position, these guns where a middle range weapon on board the battleships. They lacked the quick fire of the smaller anti-air rail guns but had greater range and punching power then the smaller ones. They didn't pack the punch of an asgard beam weapon or even the much powerful ancient beam weapon but they required less power and could be used for danger close ground support. They were middle of the road weapons and that is what the Tau'ri needed right now.

The guns turned their barreled toward the planet and like the ancient sailing ships of the line they fired a broadside toward the planet. The guns fired their rounds which shot through the atmosphere of Ovea before slamming into their targets with the same force as 1,000 pound bomb and each gun could fire every 20 seconds. They fired so fast that each gun had actually moved on past the first five targets before the first round hit the first target. The rounds fell true and the Race's command and control began to fall apart as military bases spread out across occupied Ovea where destroyed. If this was a standard operation they would also go after the power system and civilian communication/space ports but here they left those alone. It would make removing the Race civilians from the world easier if they still had power.

 **Outside of the capital, Race and the Vantic looked on in confusion as black shapes began to descend down from the sky, near Emperor Risson bridge.**

"Open the doors!" yelled the pilot as the side doors on the model of Owl that Sheppard was on slide open. As they did two crew members swung mini guns into position as the hot dry air rushed into the compartment. "90 seconds!"

Shepard looked down and made sure his SIR-15 rifle was ready as the pilot called out again at the 30 seconds mark. By now he could see the landing zone, it was a grass covered area with what looked to be shrubs of some kind only the grass like all the plants where a brownish color. Nearby he could see multiple buildings almost all of them block shaped in one way or another and rising up was a large bridge spanning a canyon. That bridge was their objective and they were going to take it.

"10 seconds!" yelled the pilot as the owl reached ground level. It never actually touched down in case of mines, it was next to impossible that the ground was minded but the pilots where following standard operations. The marines jumped out of the sides of the crafts and began to move out, all around them more marines where getting off owls and moving to secure the bridge.

Shepard jumped over a small fence marking the edge of the park while behind him a couple marines knocked it down with the help of their power armor. The civilians who looked at them didn't move, they just stood perfectly still like statues only their turreted eyes moved as they followed the Tau'ri.

"Set up command there and lay down the road spikes, I want the road cleared and fields of fire set up!" yelled the nearest officer, a major as the marines went to work. Shepard headed over the interceptions, traffic having been stopped by other fire teams. A hissing sound kept coming from the cars, figuring it was their version of a car horn he paid it no mind as he and a handful of other marines entered the nearest building to the bridge. He entered to find a lobby waiting air with a podium at one end, past the podium was a larger open area full of tables and lizards all sitting down with plates of food.

"Excuses me." said a lizard "Who are you?"

"Tau'ri marines." answered Shepard, there was no need to be rude if he didn't have to, being nice may make the whole thing easier. "And you all need to get out of here."

"Excuses me, but Tau'ri? Marines? What are they?" inquired a lizard

"Those are the creatures helping the terrorists!" yelled a lizard sitting at a table. "I was at the terrorist attack on the educational center and I saw them, by the Emperor I saw them do it."

"Well then." said another lizard as he got up and moved toward the group of Tau'ri marines, he stood before them and with authority in his voice. "You will come with me, I will take you back to the police station and you will answer to your crimes."

Shepard and the other marines just looked at each other for a moment, this lizard didn't even come up to their chest, he was clearly not armed in any way that they could see the one piece of clothing he had on, a belt had no gun or combat knife. He could have a switchblade knife in one of his belt packets, but he had no gun and the blade would have been small. He was attempting to arrest six fully armed marines in battle armor with another hundred or so outside without being armed in any way and he seamed to believe that he could do it, like the marines would just follow him to jail.

"Is this guy off his rocker?" inquired Ashely as the lizard moved forward, to his amazement none of the Tau'ri moved instead he walked into them.

"By the emperor are you idiots I ordered you to follow me to the station for arrest." stated what they assumed was a police officer.

Shepard let out a sigh and pointed SIR-15 assault rifle up toward the ceiling and fired a three round burst into the it causing the lizard to jump back in amazement. He paused for a moment wondering if there was a second floor to this building and if he had accidental shot someone when the bullets ripped through the floor but no sunlight could be seen through the holes.

"You are armed?" inquired the Lizard cop in amazement.

"Yes, marines liberating a world from occupation come armed." stated Ashley as she pointed her rifle at the lizard. "Now put your hands up and get against that wall."

"You can't do this we are the Race, we will sue you and by the Emperor we will win!" yelled another member of the Race. "I am a lawyer and I will gladly take up the case."

"Listen I don't know if you are a female or a male but you don't seem to understand, we don't answer to you and your Empire is actually at our mercy we can crush it in a matter of hours." Stated Ashley "Now hands up."

It took longer then what they had expected, maybe the idea of killing the Emperor caused them to focus more on that then on the threat to their own lives but in the end they raised their hands.

"Excuses me superior sir." Said one of the Opochti waiters, as Shepard turned to see a dozen or so waiters or other workers all standing there. "Are you here to take over this world?"

"No." answered Sheppard before pulling out a small disk and tapping the side. At once a mini hologram appeared of Prince Unia.

"Listen to me Brothers and Sisters, we have prayed long and hard to our ancestors to aid us in liberating our world." Stated Prince Unia "They have finally been answered, the people of the Tau'ri alliance are here to help us. They do not want to rule us, they do not want to enslave us, they will not take away our children. They are here to free us, help them do so, help them and trust them as you would trust in our ancestors."

With that the hologram disappeared.

"We are here to liberate not conquer, it is the Race who will be leaving and once they are gone your world will be handed back to you." Stated Shepard as the Opochti looked at him for the moment. Then all but one of them raised both hands in the air and began to dance with joy. The only one who didn't just waited for a moment before jumping toward a nearby lizard and forcing it to the ground. Then in a rage it began to punch and kick the lizard.

"Get of him!" yelled Ashley as she and Shepard pulled the Opochti waiter off the lizard.

"Arrest him!" yelled the lizard, blood coming from a wound near his eye turret.

"Kill him!" yelled the waiter "He took my children and put them in one of those camps and then I had to wait on him!"

"Is this true?" inquired Shepard as the lizard looked at him.

"It's truth, I am head male for education in this area." stated the male

"Ok, we have orders for this." stated Ashley as she moved forward and picked up the male with ease and with a quick move pulled out plastic restraints and restrained him. "You are under arrest for crimes against the Opochti people."

"By the Emperor what are you doing!" yelled the male "I was attacked, arrest him."

"Consider yourself lucky." stated Shepard looking at a prep station where a couple of sharp knives where.

"I would have gone for a knife first." added Ashley as she jerked the now arrested lizard up while the others began to realize how big of trouble they where in.

 **All over the planet marines where landing in Owls, most of the marines where actually the ones stationed onboard the fleet which had arrived over Ovea.** They moved to take not the military bases, those places where already under heavy fire from orbit but instead they moved to take over the multiple educational camps in which the Race had imprisoned the Opochti children. The marines landed across the planet and within minutes each attacking force reported back that they had gained control of the camps most without a shot being fired.

The Race as a whole was caught flat footed and had no idea what was going on and how to deal with it. This fact was clear to General Jager as his force moved down the highway, in the distance he could see the massive stone walls which had surrounded Nysha. The walls towered over the landscape and would have proven a good defensible position even now but the Race had no defenses on them. The column of Tanks and APCs moved through the gap in the wall that the Race had torn down to build a highway through.

As his tank rolled down the highway he passed by a group of Puma recon vehicles now supported by four Leopard main battle tanks. They were holding the highway and keeping back stunned lizards who still didn't seam to understand the great change which had just happened to them. They honked on their horns which gave a hissing sound until the whole area sounded like a room full of snakes.

"What have they done to my city." cursed Prince Una as he rode into the city on the back of one of those Rhino beetle things. He moved beside the tank but thanks to the size of the beetle he was almost at the same height as General Jager. Behind him where more of his freedom fighters one of them carried his banner while the blue and silver flag of the Tau'ri flapped from a pole attached to the turret of his tank. "They have torn down everything and built it in their image."

Jager took in the city, it looked far more modern with glass and concrete buildings and paved blacktop roads. There was a sameness to everything and aside from the signs above doors which he couldn't read he couldn't tell what each store was selling. He looked up as Eagle fighters roared overhead, from reports they had nothing really to hunt since the Race hadn't had time to send up combat air patrols. The sound of gunfire in the distance told everyone that fighting was still going on and the rising smoke told him the location.

"At least they didn't remove my home." Said Prince Unia as Jager looked through the smoke toward what was clearly a castle, but it looked like a cross between a Japanese style castle in the main building with large rounded towers flanking each corner of an outer wall. The castle seemed to be made out of sandstone walls with what looked to be white marble highlights.

"Beautiful." said Jager

"Thank you." said Prince Unia as they neared the center of the city. The city seemed to have grown out from the castle which sat in the center of the city. That center was now a battleground as Tau'ri and Opochti fighters moved in to retake the heart of Nysha and take out the command center of the Race on Ovea.

As they rolled down the street the Race who now called it home stood on long the side of the street just looking at them in confusion. Some of them actually tried to cross the street when the a light changed like they would have on a normal day but almost getting run over by a tank forced them back. As they neared the center a huge explosion rocked the area on the other side as a massive fireball engulfed the area. It was so powerful that windows broke under the force and that got the lizards off the street.

"Command this is red wolf 2." Said a voice over the radio as Jager tapped the side of his helmet to activate his radio.

"This is command go ahead red wolf 2." Said Jager

"We have gained control of the western edge of the governmental area." reported Red Wolf 2 over the radio. "The Race forces are falling back toward the castle we are pushing forward."

"Good, we are about five minutes out from your position." confirmed Jager

"Understood command, we may already have the castle by the time to arrive." Said the head of the recon force. "The Race isn't putting up a good fight at the moment."

"We caught them totally by surprise that will not last long." Stated Jager "We need to finish this before they do get back on their feet."

"Will do command." said Red Wolf 2.

 **The soldiers of the Race fired back at the enemy which had suddenly turned the center of government on Vantic 5 into a battlefield.** They had no idea what was going on and they had seen these creatures dressed in strange wrappings and armor push them back with ease. Inside the command center Fleet Lord Straha looked at the map, he was still trying to get a grip on what was happening when he heard gunfire coming from outside. The door burst open as a wounded male rushed in carrying his rifle.

"Forgive me Exulted Fleet lord but the enemy has taken the lobby and are coming this way." Stated the male

"Stop them." ordered Straha as the male turned and entered the hallway to reengage with the enemy.

"What by the Emperor is going on?" inquired Fleet Lord of the Colonization fleet Reffet as he stood across the Straha. "Where did these creatures come from?"

"No idea." admitted Straha as he moved toward a narrow window which was designed to fire arrows out of and looked outside. The area had been turned into a battleground with armed vehicles of these new comers on the grounds of government square. They were no longer firing their weapons instead he could see a large number of males and females lined up in the park. They where on their knees with their hands on top of their heads with armed guards around them. He was looking out the window when a rumble filled the air, it was coming from outside as a column of Land Cruisers rolled up in the large square just outside the wall. "But they have land cruisers."

"Where are our forces?" inquired Reffet as Straha turned and walked back to the other Fleet Lord.

"Exulted Fleet Lord take a look at this!" yelled a male from another window as Straha let out a hiss and walked over to the window and stopped dead in his tracks as he saw what the male was pointing at. A massive dark cloud formation filled the sky, then before his very eyes a massive shape burst out of the sky. It filled the sky above the city and for some reason his eyes locked on the symbol painted on the side of the ship. It was the same symbol of a tringle with no bottom within a circle, that was the symbol that the terrorist in Likna had been flying over the city they took over. They had claimed that was a symbol of some group called the Tau'ri, he liked so many others had assumed it was a lie but he was clearly wrong.

"Fleet Lord, we have communication back!" yelled a male a Straha rushed over to that computer station only to see that it was a TV station coming in not reports from the other military bases spread out across Vantic 5.

"If you are just joining us, it would appear that unknown forces have launched an attack on our world." Said the news male behind the desk as images began to appear of more of these strange ships appearing over different cities across the world. Then it showed military bases a fire and infantry males of the Race surrendering in mass to ground forces of the Tau'ri. "We do not know what they want but they are somehow by the emperor somehow they are beating the Conquest fleet forces across the entire planet."

"This is planet wide?" inquired Reffet not wanting to believe this was possible yet alone that it was happening across the world.

The sound of gunfire picked up outside the door as his attention was turned back to ground level and not the communication system. He turned back toward the door just in time to see it burst open as four Tau'ri males stormed in guns raised.

"Stand down." ordered Straha to the males gathered in the room as he moved toward the four warriors. "Do you understand me?"

"Yes, who are you?" inquired one of the warriors.

"He is the fleet Lord by the Emperor you should show him respect." Stated another male only to have a look from his fleet Lord shut him up.

"I am Fleet Lord Straha of the Conquest fleet, I want to talk to your fleet lord." Stated Straha as one of them raised a hand to the side of his helmet.

"He must have a radio in his helmet." Stated another male

"The General is right outside however unless you accept unconditional surrender we have nothing to talk about." stated the soldier as Straha glared at him.

"You have me at gunpoint I believe I am captured." Stated Straha

"No, for the entire planet." Stated the soldier in the computerized voice. "You are to order the total surrender of all Race forces on Ovea. If you do not we will keep beating your scale covered ass until you surrender."

Straha paused for a moment, turning an eye turret toward the window where that starship floated over the city. He let out a resigned hiss before moving his hand to confirm that he agreed to the terms.

"I don't think we have any real choice, by the Emperor we don't." added Reffet

"Very well, I will radio our forces to stand down and surrender." stated Straha "Emperor forgive me."

Minutes later Fleet Lord Straha along with Fleet Lord Reffet and other shiplords and officers walked out of remains of the castle and into a courtyard. They stopped for a moment when they saw that the courtyard was filled with Tau'ri and Vantic fighters. They lined each side of a path leading toward where a single Tau'ri along with a crawler stood waiting.

With a resigned hiss Straha moved forward and stopped in front of the Tau'ri, he like all these Tau'ri had their face hidden behind a helmet visor.

"You are this General I assume?" inquired Straha

"I am General Jager." Confirmed the Tau'ri

"Then I come to…surrender to you." Hissed Straha as he wanted to kill himself just for saying it.

"No." said Jager as Straha turned both eye turrets toward him and looked right at him a sign that all his attention was on this Tau'ri. "You are not surrendering to me but to Prince Unia and the Opochti people."

Straha turned his eye turrets away from the Tau'ri and to the terrorist who stood beside him.

"You have to be joking?" inquired Straha

"No, we are not, you are surrendering to him not the Tau'ri Alliance." stated Jager as Straha lowered his head and gave a resigned hiss.

"Very well, I surrender to the Tau'ri and Prince Unia." Stated Straha as Jager looked toward Prince Unia who nodded his head.

"That will do." stated Prince Unia who was enjoying having the mighty Straha surrender to him, he didn't care if he was surrounding both to him and the Tau'ri. He knew that without the Tau'ri he would never had gotten to this moment and in less than two hours. Two hours, he still couldn't wrap his mind around that, the Race who had conquered and taken over his world was defeated in two hours. Two hours and his planet had been liberated and all the Tau'ri wanted in return was for his people to trade metal to them and they would even pay for the metal not just take it. It was more than fair deal in his view, if anything the Tau'ri seemed to be getting the short end of the stick because the metal they wanted was so common. He looked up to see the banner pole where since the finishing of the castle countless generations ago his family banners flew until the Race tore it down and replaced it with their own banner. He watched as one of his freedom fighters holding the orange and brown banner of his family and as he watched a Tau'ri lowered the flag of the Race and stepping aside allowed the freedom fighter to raise the flag of the Unia family over the city they founded for the first time since the conquest. "That will be just fine."

 **Well I hope you liked this chapter, I delayed this a chapter because I have been focusing on finishing another chapter for another story that I have left alone for too long. Also I must admit I got a new video game and I find myself sitting down for a hour only to find out that two plus hours have passed. Sorry. Now until next time please keep reading. Thanks, Wilkins75.**


	24. Chapter 24

**Chapter 24 Growing Understanding**

Fleet Lord Straha of the Conquest fleet and Fleet Lord Reffet of the Colonization fleet stood by a small window in the stone fortress which had once been the home of the Nysha family which once ruled the city state which had the same name. The Race had taken the city when they had taken Vantic 5 into the Empire, now they had lost it. For the first time in the history of the Race the armed forces of the Race had been defeated, not since the end of the last war on Home when all the Race was brought under the rule of a single Emperor had the forces of the Empire been defeated until now. Straha let out a hissing sigh, that truth wasn't fully truth, there had been some cases in each of the conquests where a small squad of four to six males had been captured or killed in a firefight but those where tiny defeats. As Straha looked out over the burning remains of the governmental center and in the distance the rising smoke from other fires and hanging over it all was a warship. It somehow remained flying overhead without any visible thrusts pointing directly toward the ground.

"Emperor forgive me." Hissed Straha as he turned one eye turret toward the large wooden door, he knew that outside those doors where likely either crawler guards or Tau'ri guards.

"How…how is any of this possible?" hissed Reffet, he was a civilian and had no combat experience he had never even held a gun in his claws and couldn't understand how the military forces of the Race had fallen.

"This world must have been targeted by another Empire for conquest and they hit us hard." Stated Straha it was the only possibility that came to mind. It should have been impossible but it was the only idea that made any real sense.

"You are close." Said a voice as a figure walked in, he couldn't tell who it was as first. With their strange wrappings and visor helmets he couldn't tell one of them from another. Then again even after all these years he couldn't tell the difference between most of the crawlers, he had gotten better of telling the difference between crawler females and males but he still made mistakes. Straha noticed the metal symbols on the collar of the wrappings around the figures neck was the same silver five pointed item.

"General Jager I assume?" inquired Straha

"Correct." Stated Jager as another Tau'ri entered the room, followed moments later by the terrorist Prince Unia and another crawler. The strange seats which had once filled the room had been replaced long ago, they where all wrong for the Race but someone had brought up folding metal chairs which seamed to work for the crawlers and a different kind of the Tau'ri. The two Fleet Lords used the chairs that the Race had brought in after they began the process of turning this fortress home into a governmental center. "We are here to inform you what will happen next."

"You are going to take over this world and add it to your empire." hissed Straha

"No, this world belongs to the Opochti people we are only returning Ovea to her people." Corrected Jager "We will have a trading relationship with them but they will be free to forge their own path."

"And we will forever be grateful to the Tau'ri people for liberating us." stated Prince Unia "As for you, you should be thankful as well to the Tau'ri."

"I fail to see why?" countered Reffet

"Because of your crimes against the people of Ovea you are both under arrest for war crimes along with many others among the Race." explained General Jager

"What crimes?" inquired Reffet confused

"Taking away our children for one!" yelled Prince Unia at the top of his lungs as he leaned forward over the table only to be pulled back by the Tau'ri General.

"We where only attempting to give them a proper education to be truly civilized." stated Reffet

"And you can try that defense, but I don't think it will get you far." stated General Jager "We have families as well and men and women have died to save their children and what you did is seen as a horrible crime among the civilizations of the galaxy."

"The rest of the galaxy?" inquired Straha "Or your Empire?"

"We have no Empire or Emperor, we are an alliance of people who have come together under one government in which citizens vote for leaders to run the government by popular vote." stated General Jager "I believe your Fleet Lord Atvar called it snout counting."

Both lizards looked right at Jager, both of their eye turrets locked on him when he had said Atvar's name. Then with planned slowness he reached up and tapped the release button on the side of his helmet, after a half second in which the computer built into his power armor confirmed there was air or gas the front of the helmet released. Then he lifted his helmet off his head to show them for the first time that he was human.

Straha blinked rapidly as if he had a piece of sand stuck in his eye, he couldn't believe what he was seeing a Tosevite was sitting across from him, he had surrender to a Tosevite. The general spoke in grunts and groans only to have the Tau'ri aid behind him translate for him.

"I bet you are surprise, so was your fleet Lord Atvar when he arrived in our home system." stated Jager "He was even more surprised to find out that the sword swinging primitives have advanced to become arguably the most powerful civilization in the galaxy."

Straha and Reffet just looked at Jager in confusion not really understanding what was being said.

"See you assumed that all civilization advance at the same rate, that is not true some spread and advance much more rapidly." explained Jager "For example only 14 years ago, that would be 28 of your years we the Tau'ri only settled our first colony, now we have three and another civilization the Lanagara joined us raising our total number of worlds to 5 with more settlements planned. We simply outpace you and as you can see our military is far more advanced than yours."

"You lie!" hissed Straha but it was a weak hiss, he could see out the window the floating starship which somehow stayed up with no clearly visible engine thrust pointed down. If a Race ship attempted that they would run out of fuel and crash into the ground but the Tau'ri ship just floated there without a care. "What you claim is impossible. There aren't even 5 inhabitable worlds within that travel distance from Tosev 3, the only ones are those of the Race and you haven't conquered our Empire."

"Truth." stated Reffet

"Well your empire could be crushed and conquered within a day or two but we have reason to do that now." stated Jager "Your worlds are too hot, too dry and the climate overall is not to our likening we have found worlds better suited to human kind."

"Then why attack us?" inquired Reffet

"Because you sent a fleet to conquer us and we don't like it when a primitive race gets conquered by a more advanced one." Stated Jager "Which is why we aren't going to take over your Empire, we are going to return Ovea to her people and return your people back to Home. If your Emperor agrees to finally talk to us, we will make a peace deal. If not well…we may have to destroy your empire after all and make peace with a new Empire."

"We have sent a message to Home, they will be ready for you." Stated Reffet in what sounded like cocky tone as he opened his mouth in a laugh. "It is so simple math that even a big ugly Tosevite like you can understand, the message is traveling at the speed of light and even at half the speed of light they will have years to prepare for your arrival."

"You assume we will be traveling slower then light?" countered Jager as Reffet's mouth closed with a snap. "See we have Faster then light technology, the fleet currently floating over Ovea was in fact over Home only 3 tenths of an hour ago."

The Race used a different time scale, instead of 60 minutes in an hour they had 100, if Jager did his math right it came to around 18 minutes from point to point. Either way it made no difference, they would arrive over Home before any radio message from Ovea reached them.

"Not that you will ever see home again." Said Prince Unia "Both of you and everyone one else of those who had a hand in taking away our children will face justice."

"What?" inquired Reffet

"You committed crimes against the Ovea people remember, you will pay for those crimes." Stated Jager "I believe that Prince Unia and the Ovea people will likely sentence you to the maximum punishment they have."

"Correct…death." stated Prince Unia as Jager let out a sigh, the Tau'ri still technically had the death sentence but only for crimes against humanity such as terrorist using a WMD or treason against the Tau'ri in the form of spying in time of war. Those where the two exceptions to the ban on the death sentence under Tau'ri law.

"You can't be telling the truth?" inquired Straha

"That is their laws." stated Jager "However Prince Unia in his grace will allow you and all those members of the Race who committed crimes against the people of this world to live, if your emperor agrees to peace. If that happens you will be removed from Ovea without any property and allowed to return to Home. If your Emperor doesn't agree to peace then your fate will be in the hands of the Opochti people."

 **Fleet Lord Atvar had pushed his fleet beyond all safety standards risking the lives of every male in his conquest fleet but it had payed off.** They arrived at Home and began to unload the massive amounts of military equipment. For the first time since unification land cruisers and other weapons of war moved into defensive positions around the Imperial palace. Anti-air missile systems where rolled into place crushing perfectly maintained rock gardens under the treads. Some of the most combat experienced veterans moved into the imperial palace to support the Imperial guard force.

Atvar himself moved down the imperial audience chamber, the black marble polished to a shin as he moved quickly past the hanging banners of every Empire defeated in the history of the Empire. There where banners there from long defeated Empires which had once fought for control of Home along with the true Empire. There where also the banners from the empires of the other three worlds within the Empire however there would be no flags Empires defeated from the 4th world in the Empire, Tosev 3. Now it may be the Empire itself which could fall and fall to the Tosev Tau'ri, at the idea Atvar let out an angry hiss.

"Excluded Fleet Lord Atvar." stated a voice as Atvar turned toward a semi-hidden side door. Instantly he got into the special position of respect reserved for the Emperor himself as Emperor Risson entered the grand hall. His golden body paint being the only one of it's kind across the entire planet a sign that in the ancient past the Emperor was seen as the sun itself.

"Your majesty it is an honor to meet you." stated Atvar "It with the last Emperor who sent me out to conquer Vantic 5 and Tosev 3."

"Yes, I was there when he sent you out." stated Risson as Atvar blinked as he tried to remember seeing the future emperor in the crowed which had gathered for the ceremony, however the crown prince generally wore the same body paint as a court page. That was a tradition that dated back before unity and it was so he would be hidden incase of an attack or attempted capture of the Prince. "But none of that matters, we have much more pressing business. The Tau'ri are a grave concern to me Fleet Lord and I am giving you a new mission."

"Any mission you give me, it shall be done your majesty." stated Atvar

"Defend Home." ordered Risson

"I have already begun your majesty and in a few days I will have the entire conquest fleet deployed in defense formation around home. I have ordered our engineers and ship makers to attach missile launchers to the ships of the fleet and our ground forces are moving as we speak." Stated Atvar "Killer crafts are moving to airbases around the planet and…."

Their meeting was interrupted as an aid rushed forward and took up the poster of respect. The Emperor gave this young page a look as he stood back up.

"Excuses me your majesty, exulted fleet lord but a single Tovesite ship has just entered the system and is heading toward us." Stated the page

"Already?" hissed Atvar as his mind began to race with the possible, sadly everything he had been taught about conquest didn't really prepare him to defend Home against a stronger force then the Race could field. "Order our ships to form a defense line between Home and the Tovesite ship."

"I will be done." stated the page as he ran off only to run into another page who was running up. If it wasn't for the look of pure fear on the young male's face it would have been funny.

"Your majesty, exulted Fleet Lord a Tosev shuttle craft has just landed in the main courtyard." Reported the page as Atvar's head snapped toward bend in the nearby corner. The main hall was shaped like a L with a large main hall for bringing those coming to the palace before the Emperor but a smaller section for where members of the Imperial Court to prepare those coming before the Emperor, that area lead right out into the main courtyard. He did a quick mental check, the Tau'ri shuttle was likely less than half a city block away.

"Your majesty you need to head down to the bunker, we will make sure you are safe." stated Atvar as Risson moved his hand in the negative gesture.

"No, I have been restrained by the protocol and I will see these Tau'ri Tosevites now." ordered Emperor Risson as Atvar looked at him with concern in his eyes. "Do not worry Fleet Lord, why would the Tosevites bring themselves to the palace to harm me, it will gain them nothing and with all this military force around me they can't touch me."

"As you command, your majesty." stated Atvar "At least let me call on more palace guards and Infantry Males?"

The Emperor paused for a moment and Atvar wondered if he had overstepped his duty and was about to get punished by the Emperor himself.

"Yes, that would be wise." confirmed Emperor Risson.

 **The pair of Owls had landed minutes ago as Admiral Hackett stood in his dress whites in the middle of the courtyard of the Imperial Palace of the Race.** His eyes scanned the walls they where large, he had to admit that, but they were designed to defend against swords and arrows not what he had under his command. Along those walls where palace guards which stood out in their pure grey body paint and soldiers of the Race who wore body paint of assorted colors. He could also see anti-air missile system which had rolled into the courtyard. It looked a lot like a soviet era SAM system with a row of five missiles waiting to be fired. Likely nearby was a tracking system and replacement missiles however the system had failed to detect his Owl until it decloaked and it hadn't detected the other Owls which flew overhead.

"Sir we have movements on the steps." stated one of his body guards as he turned and looked toward the main building, it kind of reminded him of a strange cross between the forbidden city in China only Russian onion doomed towers. A large staircase lead up toward a massive wooden door, the door itself was made out of some kind of tiger stripped wood and looked capable of stopping a charging elephant. In the ancient past that door along with the arrow slits on the main building would have been a last line of defense. The staircase was split into two with a landing in the middle, it was here that dozens of Imperial guards now appeared, most of them armed with rifles and now wearing body armor but still a few had long spears. Then he saw the doors at the top of the stairs open and a pair of figures appeared in the doorway. He recognized the body paint of one of them as a fleet lord, likely Atvar and the solid Gold paint of the figure beside him meant it had to be the Emperor of the Race Risson.

"Well that took less time then I thought." said Hackett as he straightened his white cap as a rush of wind kicked up by the unseen craft's engines kicked up around him.

Emperor Risson stood at the top of the grand staircase looking out into the courtyard, he had been in this spot countless numbers of time but this time was totally different. He could spot the strange black shuttle craft sitting to the right side of the courtyard, slightly off the center line. The could see a group of Tau'ri Tosevites standing around the shuttle, all but one of them where dressed in a strange mix color wrapping. All of them where clearly armed and the sight of armed none members of the Race was something totally new to him. No subject race was allowed to be soldiers or police officers, yes there was a few who could become professional hunters but there wasn't many of those to begin with and those 3 groups where the only ones with access to firearms. Seeing armed aliens who could actually go to war with the Empire was unnerving. The only one who wasn't armed was the one dressed in white and the one who didn't have his face covered, even as he wore a strange covering over his fur covered head. Then he noticed it, a small amount of sand kicked out from all directions directly in front of grand staircase.

Before he could make note of it a shimmer of light appeared in that area and another one of those crafts appeared before them. Only this Tau'ri shuttle craft was different, it wasn't painted black instead it had a mix of silver and blue painted on it's side. While all his attention had focused on the new craft he had failed to notice that the Tau'ri infantry males had formed up into two rows with the male in white standing in front of them. As one all the males slammed their weapons to their shoulders with the barrels pointed up as the male in white snapped to attention and raised one hand up to the fur around his un-moving eye on one side.

That is when a figure stepped off the new shuttle craft, it was a shorter male with yellowish fur on the top of his head and was dressed in black wrappings which was a different style then the male in white. He returned the gestor as the male in white and the soldiers relaxed a bit.

"Excuses me your majesty but if I am not mistaken that is Tau'ri President Carter." explained Atvar as he focused on the figure. "It is very hard to tell them apart but the way they are acting I believe I am correct."

"Who is he?" inquired Risson

"Forgive me for correcting you your majesty but he is actually a female." corrected Atvar who felt wrong just doing that for the Emperor, like every male and female in the Empire. He had been trained from birth to take the Emperor's word as law and to correct him was rare. "She is their leader, chosen by snout counting but…."

"Go on." Ordered Risson

"In their system, she holds the political and governmental power." stated Atvar as he took a breath. "In short to them, she is their Emperor and holds as much power as you do."

He expected the Emperor to explode to hiss in anger at the idea that someone could hold the same amount of power as the Emperor instead Risson only let out a resigned hiss.

"I see." Stated Risson as he looked at the figure again, trying to tell if it was a female but for the life of him he couldn't tell the differences between the male Tosevite in white and the female Tosevite who was their leader. He finally settled on the longer fur on the top of the head and that the male was taller. Height was a difference between males and females of the Race as well but there was no clear difference like scale pattern and stances to inform him of the difference in Gender.

Then he noticed a group of males and females with the body paint of reporters and others with the paint of camera operators came out of a side entrees to the courtyard.

"Who let them in? I gave orders that no reporters where allowed in the palace." hissed Atvar

Down by the Presidential Owl Samantha Carter also noticed the newly arrived members of the Race, she could see large bulky cameras similar to ones she saw in the late 80's early 90's being carried by about half of them. The other half carried what she guessed to be microphones.

"So you did manage to get into their computer system." stated Carter

"Yes, Madam President." confirmed Admiral Hackett with a slight smile. "It wasn't that hard actually, we sent out clearance papers for them to enter the palace and the guards followed what the papers and computers told them they had to do."

"We could easily fall for a similar trick but right now it works for us." said Carter as she turned her gaze toward the Emperor of the Race Risson. His golden body paint made him stand out, judging by how the sun reflected off him she wouldn't have been surprised if there was actual gold in the paint. "Now shall we begin?"

"Everything is ready, Madam President we can begin whenever you want." stated Hackett as Carter nodded her head and turned and headed toward the staircase following behind her was Admiral Hackett, two unarmed aids who would serve as translators and a dozen armed soldiers. She reached the steps and began to move up, the moment she did she saw the massive group of guards and soldiers tense up.

The moment Carter's foot reached the first step all the guards raised weapons and took aim. To the amazement of every member of the Race in the courtyard and thanks to the reporters watching on TV a blinding flash of light filled the courtyard. When the light cleared every guard and soldier which had formed a protective barrier between the Tau'ri and the Emperor were gone.

"By the Emperor" hissed Atvar as Emperor Risson tensed up as the Tau'ri delegation moved up the stairs. The small group of Tau'ri soldiers stopped at the base of the stairs but their president, Admiral plus the two aids did keep moving up the stairs.

"Where did we end up transporting them to?" inquired Carter as she moved up the stairs with a little trouble. The stairs where not designed for her feet but instead the much smaller feet of the race, and the spacing between steps where also different.

"To a sports stadium across town." answered Hackett as they moved up the stairs, stopping just a few steps down from Emperor Risson. Carter and Hackett bowed their heads slightly as a sign of respect but didn't take up the full poster of respect that the Race normally required.

"Emperor Risson, I am President Samantha Carter of the Tau'ri Alliance." Said Carter through her translator "Please forgive us for beaming away the guards, they are all alright. They appeared at a sports stadium. This isn't how we wanted to do this but your protocol master kept giving us the run around and we need to discuss the current situation."

"I agree." confirmed Risson "The Protocol Master has been removed from his position, so now we can move forward with an audience to avoid any conflict between our empires."

Carter lowered her head a bit and let out a sigh.

"The conflict has already begun, your majesty as of four hours ago all Military and governmental forces on Ovea or as you call it Vantic 5 surrendered to the joint military forces of the Opochti freedom fighters and the Tau'ri military." explained Carter as Emperor Risson turned both of his eye turrets to Carter. "The only thing now is to decide how this will end."

"You are at war with the Race?" inquired Fleet Lord Atvar

"Yes." confirmed Admiral Hackett "However we have already reached our goals where for this war. Ovea and her people are free and now the ball is in your corner, do you want to keep this war going at unbelievable cost to your Empire and her people or do we finally sit down and talk."

"We are the Race we have never failed." stated Atvar

"Everyone, every civilization fails at some point." countered Carter as her mind turned to the older powers, the Asgard, the Gao'uld, the Wraith and the Ancients. "The greatest powers that the Galaxy has ever seen have failed in time and are no longer with us. One day your Empire will fall just like some day hopefully in the distance future the Tau'ri alliance will also fall."

"The Empire has been around since before you Tosevites learned how to make fire and we will not fall to you." countered Atvar "You have one ship in orbit while we have an entire fleet. It looks to me as if you have walked into a stand pit here. We can destroy it and move on."

Carter turned and nodding to Hackett, who in turn to his translator who sent the order up. For what seamed to be the longest time nothing happened then a greenish glow appeared in the distance sky. For a moment nothing happened as they saw green glow, then it burst through the sky a green beam of energy shot out of the sky striking in the distance. The ground shook from the blast hitting in the distance. The green glow was for a moment brighter then the sun casting everything in a green glow then it disappeared only to be replaced by the rising dust which was turned up by the blast.

"That was the main beam weapon onboard the Missouri." explained Hackett

"You are attacking us?" inquired Risson

"We fired our warning shoot into the radioactive exclusion zone you have set up around where you stored the old nuclear waste and where you tested your first nuclear weapons." explained Carter, she knew that the Race had left the place abounded even after the nuclear waste decayed to the point that it was totally safe. "No males or females where harmed in the shoot, however we need you to understand the situation before you."

"You can't beat us, you will only cause hard to your Empire and it's people if you tried." Explained Hackett

"You are threatening us?" stated Atvar

"Yes, a threat has been given but also a hope a hope that we can finally sit down and agree to a peace that will end this pointless struggle that will only end with the destruction of your Empire." Stated Carter "That is something we do not want."

"Then why attack us in the first place? Why not allow us to bring culture to Vantic 5?" inquired Atvar

"Because they don't want your culture, you attacked and overthrew their culture." Explained Carter "However when it comes to the other worlds in your Empire the culture of the Race has become the culture of the two races who you conquered thousands of years ago. They are members of the Race in all but biology. We can't remove them from your Empire but we can prevent you from forcing your culture on another world."

"And what happens if we do leave Vantic 5, when we colonize our next world and we have to do that. What will happen if it is populated as well." Stated Risson as Atvar looked at his Emperor in amazement, the idea that the Race would return a world to the natives was unthinkable. "That is the other fork of the tongue, we need worlds, I don't care if it is Vantic 5 or Tosev 3 but those two worlds are the worlds nearest to us that can support life. We need to have at least one of them, if we don't have them then overpopulation will lead only problems."

"And we had an over population issue for a while too but we have a solution." Stated Carter "Even after this short conflict between our people we are still willing to honor the deal we offered your delegation."

"Wait." ordered Risson as he raised his hand up "What offer?"

"We offered two worlds for your people to settle on and all you have to do is leave Ovea." Explained Carter "We offered that deal to your Protocol Master and the delegation you sent to Earth."

Risson let out an angry hiss.

"He didn't tell you about that offer did he?" inquired Carter

"Truth, he didn't tell me about that offer." Admitted Risson "So tell me where are these worlds? Are they so far away that we can't reach them? We don't have your faster than light travel technology."

"No, they are actually within this solar system." Stated Carter "Using the same terra forming technology we used within our own system to make Mars and Venus habitual we can make two of the worlds in this system habitual."

Risson placed a clawed hand under his snout considering, two new worlds within the same system of Home would be something that was only considered in cheap sci-fi stories. Homefrying or as the Tau'ri call it Terra Forming was something considered impossible, yet in every report it was clear that the Tau'ri had done that.

"And how long will this process take?" inquired Risson "How many decades?"

"The ship is currently deployed elsewhere but can arrive within two weeks and the first world can be ready for settlement within 6 months with the second one two to three months later." Stated Hackett as he looked at the stunned look on the lizards and remembered something important. "Sorry those are in our dates, I don't have the exact time but within 2 of your years you will be able to begin settlement operations on both worlds."

That time table still amazed the lizards which take an entire generation to plan out every detail of complex operations. The plan to conquer Tosev 3 and Vantic 5 had taken hundreds of years and here the Tau'ri where going to give them two worlds to colonize within 2 years. It took longer then two years to finish the outline of a report about the effects that adding another world to the Empire would effect the Empire. The Race had never studied the effects that having three populated worlds within a single system, they had no idea how that would affect the citizens of the Empire and the Empire as a whole. It would take decades to study the effect and plan to counteract any issues that would arise but here the Tau'ri where going to do it in less than two years.

"Would this agreement work for you? The evacuation and abandonment of all claims to Vantic 5 and her people for the terraforming of two worlds." Inquired Carter

"In principle I believe I can agree to that but there are still many details to go over." admitted Risson

"Then I recommend that we carry on this conversion in a better place where we can work out the details." Offered Carter

"Agreed." stated Risson as he turned an eye turret toward a nearby royal page who had been watching from a distance. "Prepare the main conference Room, we will arrive in 10 minutes."

"It will be done, your majesty." Stated the page before moving off to carry out his orders.

"Allow me to be the first Emperor in the History of the Empire to welcome a…leader from an independent Empire from another world." Said Risson, he knew at least Carter wasn't an Emperor or an Empress but he did call the Tau'ri Alliance an Empire when it wasn't. The Tau'ri shrugged and let it pass, they where making too much progress. "Please follow me into the Great Hall, I will personally show you it while the conference room."

"It will be an honor, your Majesty." Said Carter as they entered the Imperial Palace.

 **While the news of the conflict between the Race and the Tau'ri had been front page news across Tau'ri space with multiple hours covering every small detail of the conflict.** The fact that the Race was taking away children had pulled at the heart strings of the Tau'ri people helped the story stay upfront. Since it was on Tau'ri news it was available for public viewing in the 12 colonies of Kobol. For the most part the Colonials shared the same anger at the Race as their Tau'ri counterparts, however the Colonials had no dog in the fight. The military operations were of great interest to the Colonial Government.

"So the Tau'ri kicked the Fraken Ass out of the Empire of the Race?" inquired President Roslin as she stood behind her desk in the Presidential Estate. "Does this surprise anyone?"

"In some ways." Admitted Admiral Adama as he took a drink of his coffee, it was a new popular blend sweeping the colonies of half Caprican Brown bean and half Tau'ri Blue Mountains. "The Tau'ri seam very interested in that world for some reason, they sent an entire fleet. Why would they do that when only two or three ships could have done the job."

"Why would they?" inquired Roslin as Adama shook his head.

"I have no official idea Madam President, but they wanted that world badly it must have something important to them." explained Adama as Roslin let out a sigh, she was half tempted to turn to the intelligence officer in the room and ask what the Colonial Intelligence offices knew. She didn't, because the Colonial Intelligence offices had a hard time getting anything of great worth on the Tau'ri.

"Madam President." Said Intelligence officer "We may now know what the Tau'ri are after now but we may have a line to gain more information about their goals. The Intelligence Community want's the green light to set up a few pleasure houses on Aquaria and use the workers in them to learn what the Tau'ri are up to."

"So you are going to use prostitutes to uncover the secrets of the Tau'ri?" inquired Vice President Baltar as he sat in a chair to Roslin's left. "Pillow talk, kind of old school isn't it?"

"It is, but it has worked multiple times in our own history and we are even considering going after the growing number of Colonial Citizens who are in relationships with Tau'ri personal." said the officer "We have a list of the ones we know about and…"

"And I will stop you there." Said Roslin as the Intelligence officer looked up. "Do you remember that the Tau'ri have those wonderful little machines which can tell if a person is lying or not. The Tau'ri place them everywhere to get on their base or their base housing and in a long term relationship people tend to go to each other houses."

"We didn't Madam President." confirmed the officer already seeing where this was going.

"And what do you think will happen when one of your new spies tries to visit their lover and fails the test? It will blow your entire operation." stated Roslin "No, no using boyfriends and girlfriends to spy to great of risk of discovery. Your pleasure house…I will take it under advisement. I want reports about how it would work and how to avoid any discovery by the Tau'ri."

"Yes Madam President." confirmed the Intelligence Officer

"Not sure this is a good idea." admitted Baltar "We are already on the path to being assimilated by the Tau'ri within the next 20 to 30 years it may be pointless to do this."

"It may." admitted Roslin as she looked at Baltar, he was going to be the next President that was given and after him his soon to be wife. Which one of them would sign the treaty disbanding the Articles of Colonization and replacing them with the Charter of the Tau'ri Alliance? She wasn't sure but it would be one of the two she was sure of it. "However we are still an free power and we need to gather intelligence."

"Understood Madam President." Said Baltar "Either way it is nice to see the Tau'ri kick the fraken crap out of someone else."

"Agreed." Said Adama as they turned their attention to the next item on the list, rebuilding efforts on Tauron.

 **For the Race on Vantic 5 they had no idea what to do, they suddenly found strange dark ships floating over their cities and then word came from the Fleet Lords of the Conquest and Colonization fleets that they had surrender the world.** Few of the Race believed them and then they began to see the Tau'ri appear on corners of streets in large cities and rolling through smaller towns with machines of War. The Vantic didn't know what happened either and then Prince Unia appeared to them and announced the deal he had made with the Tau'ri alliance and that they where free. Then the celebrations began.

The Opochti people began to celebrate in their own traditional ways and in ways similar to most culture across the galaxy that celebration involved a lot of food. They began to cook their traditional meals including the ones using the meat from the tiny lizard which looked similar to the Race which had been banned. Upon seeing this some of the members of the Race called it in to the police who came to arrest the offending parties.

"We are liberated you can't do this to us!" yelled a Vantic male as he was lead into the police station of a small town.

"You broke the law." Stated the officer only to stop in his tracks when he saw a large group of his fellow officers leaving the building without duty equipment on. It was too soon for a shift change then he saw that the police station was full of crawlers not his fellow males and females. "By the Emperor what is going on?"

"The Police is under new management." said a voice as he saw a tall figure standing on two legs and dressed in strange wrappings. "You are now longer working here."

"What?" inquired the officer "Who are you and who do you think you are?"

"I am an officer in the Tau'ri military and I am now the officer in charge of the police here and these men and women are the officers who will keep the city safe." Stated the Tau'ri officer "If you don't believe me here is the signed order from your fleet lord you are to obey all orders from the Tau'ri Military and Opochti freedom fighters under Prince Unia."

The lizard scanned the paper work and with a resigned hiss let go of his prisoner and turned and walked out the door. That is when he noticed a large vehicle with a heavy machine gun on it and more of those strange Tau'ri creatures standing around it.

"You are free to go." said the Tau'ri officer as the Opochti male thanked him and headed out the door as well. With that done he turned and looked at the local official, he had been the law officer for the town before the Race came and had turned to street cleaning after the Race came.

"You should have arrested the Race slim for doing that to that boy." Said the former and now current law officer.

"Maybe but that is why your Prince Unia agreed to have Tau'ri officers over you for the moment. We don't want riots and violence." Stated the officer "The Race will be gone in a few weeks and if we keep things calm the smoother it will be."

"I understand but I don't like it." admitted the Law Officer as a member of the Race came in to report a crime only to stop when he or she saw the lobby fully of Crawlers without a member of the Race in sight.

"Can I help you?" inquired the Tau'ri officer

"Yes, those crawlers are now wearing wrappings again and that is against the law go out a remove the offending wrappings." Said the Race

"No, that is totally legal now." Said the Tau'ri officer "If they are rioting, looting or hurting you in any way."

"Well have you smelled their food that is painful to breath." stated the Race

"Kind of smelt like Indian food to me, I was going to give it a try." admitted the Officer "Either way offending smells from food isn't against the law, so is there anything else?"

"Clearly you don't care about proper order." stated the member of the Race as it stormed out.

"It is going to be a long day." complained the Tau'ri officer.

 **The skies where just beginning to brighten as Starbuck roomed the skies with two squadrons of Vipers.** They had moved out over the now ice-free oceans of Aquaria much more than they had for their earlier training seasons.

"So we have Death Gliders followed by Cylons Raiders and then another round with the Tau'ri then we are done." Said Starbuck over the wireless as she scanned the sky. Beside her, her wing mate Justinian was also scanning the sky. "You still have a chance to get in the top 20 and win one of the jobs."

"I know and I will get one of those jobs." stated Justinian with force in his voice. "Now where are those Death Gliders?"

"No idea but we they are out there." stated Starbuck.

In truth there was no Death Gliders up at the moment, in a twist to throw off the colonials and to keep them guessing the Tau'ri stealth frigate Normandy which was scheduled to be the last challenge was actually up instead. Along with the Normandy flew four of the newly upgraded Eagle fighters and together they formed a V formation, they where out of visual eyeball range but within sensor range for the pilots.

"Marking targets." Said EDI as she sat at her own copilot seat across from Joker. She flicked it over to Jeff which it came up over his screen. The Viper formation was marked in multiple different colors and numbered, the color was the assigned weapon system to take down the viper and the number was the order of destruction.

"I have a flight plan laid out." Said Joker as he moved his flight plan over to EDI who scanned the map and nodded her head in agreement.

"Alright bringing weapon systems online." Reported EDI as missile tubes opened up and rail guns which sat recessed in the haul raised up into a fire position. In total 22 rail guns moved into position giving the Normandy 360 degrees of fire against aircraft, the rail guns weren't designed to take on capital ships for that they had beam weapons but they left those charged down.

"3…2…1…executing." Stated Joker as he pushed the Normandy forward, the scram jets the ship had for in atmosphere. The Normandy rolled over into an attack position and headed straight toward the Squadrons of Vipers. The vipers saw them at the last moment as the rail guns on the Normandy opened up with training laser rounds. The Normandy dove through the vipers before spinning around for another attack run.

"91% kill rate on first pass." Reported EDI as she focused on firing on the Vipers now that they were under attack.

"Surprise it was that low, I always imagined that computers would be able to drop everything 100% of the time." Stated Joker "Like how you see a killer robot in the movie but it keeps missing the hero. You're a robot you should be head shooting everyone."

"No machine is perfect and 8% of those missed in the first round where last ones to be targeted only 1 viper actually moved out of the way much faster then I expected." Admitted EDI as she focused on that Viper. "Kara Thrace Starbuck top of the class here, she is doing very well I have only shot her down three times compared to the average number of 9. She is first to come at us, that was how I shot her down the first time."

"Well the mission is still young." Stated Joker as they kept the mission going.

 **Kassquit couldn't believe what she was hearing, the Empire had lost Vantic 5?** How could the Race loss? How could they loss to the Tosevites within a day and how could they Emperor then meet with the Tosevite leader as an Equal. She had seen the flash of light and the massive cloud of dust and sand which rose up in the distance after the Tau'ri showed the power of their weapon systems.

"What do you think will happen?" inquired Kassquit to a nearby Palace official who had been assigned to keep an eye on her.

"Whatever the Emperor wills to happen." stated the Palace official "He will do what is best for the Empire."

"Yes, he will." said Kassquit as she wondered if the Emperor would take her own personal happiness into consideration. She was nothing in the grand total of the Empire and all her education in the ways of the Race told her if she had to give up her own happiness for the good the Empire then she had to. Even so she didn't want to go back to Vantic 5 if she had to follow the backward uncultured laws of her biological race instead of the cultured laws of the Race.

 **Emperor Risson of the Race looked down at the draft agreement that the Tau'ri had placed before him, he scanned it with care.** The terms where simple, he would order the removal of all members of the Race from Vantic 5 and release all claims to the world and Tosev 3. The settlers of Vantic 5 would have to leave behind all their processions, livestock and buildings when they returned to Home. They would be allowed to bring back a small bag of their own items and any personal pets but the rest where forfeited to the Opochti people as payment for their occupation. They would also ask for forgiveness and pay retribution to Opochti people which equaled half of the entire budget for Imperial Household for 50 years, 25 Tau'ri years. It was a harsh price to pay but it was better then the cost of a war and with some quick math came out close to the money earned by resources shipped from Vantic 5 to other parts of the Empire during their rule.

He also had to sign the official border between Tau'ri space which now surrounded the Empire of the Race on all sides. He also had to agree to allow the Tau'ri to open an Embassy on Home but they in turn would allow an Embassy on Tosev 3. The Tau'ri would open a faster then light communication network between Home and he other worlds of the Empire and that was on top of Terra-forming two worlds. It was straight forward and rather simple.

"I believe we are in agreement." Stated Carter as she studied the second copy of the document, it was both in the Language of the Race and on the other side in the language of the Tau'ri.

"Yes, we are." said Risson as he looked at the agreement again he couldn't read the Tau'ri words but he could read the one on the Race side. He would honor those words only as Emperor his word was law and as such he could sign this document and it be totally legal once for all.

"Then shall we sign?" inquired Carter as Risson moved his hand in conformation.

He signed his copy and watched as President Carter signed her copy, then they switched copies and countersigned and like that the conflict was over.

 **Well I hope you liked this chapter, I had planned to have this chapter out earlier but I got hit hard by a late season flu bug which took me off my feet for almost a week. I have only one more chapter planned for this story with a remote chance of a second chapter to finish wrapping everything up. Now once this story is done I will take two weeks or so off before starting the next story in the series, the Mass Effect story. So until next time please keep reading. Thanks Wilkins75.**


	25. Chapter 25

**Chapter 25 The End of the Middle**

The Emperor appeared on TV before the eye turrets of four worlds, for the first time a live broadcasts of the Emperor was going out beyond Home. To the Members of the Empire on Hallus 1 and Robov 2 the appearance of a Tau'ri ship over their worlds caused much concern which only grew when they learned of the War between the Empire and the Tau'ri.

"Citizens of the Empire, today I have done a first in the long history of the Race. I have signed a peace treaty with an Nation who is ruled by a race who is not the Race." Stated the Emperor as he sat upon his golden throne. "I have made peace with the Tau'ri Alliance based off a world called Earth by their people or as we call it Tosev 3. The Tau'ri Tosevites because they are Tosevites have taught us a great lesson, the Race we believed we where the most advanced and all where like us. We were wrong."

The Emperor paused for a moment and let that sink in before going on. For the Emperor who was seen as a living God to admit a mistake was unheard of among the Race.

"They have advanced to a point far beyond us, in a flick of an eye turret. They have technology which allows them to travel and communicate faster than light and which is how I am communicating with all my subjects now at the same time." stated Risson "They have defeated our Conquest forces on Vantic 5 and have returned it to the people. As part of the peace treaty I agree to recognize that Vantic system and Tosev system belongs to their native people and I am ordering the return of all settlers and Conquest forces on Vantic 5 to Home. The Tau'ri forces on Vantic 5 will organize the evacuation but all equipment, livestock and everything outside of personal items and pets are to be left behind as part of the deal."

On Vantic 5 multiple males and females began to voice their protest at the arrangement and some voiced that they would file an audience with to the Emperor to stop this only to realize it was the Emperor's own decree and their would be no changing the order. With that realizing most of the males and females began to look around their homes and began to think about all the things they had to do to leave.

"I will like to offer the people of Ovea the official apologize of the Empire and your world and people are forever released from the Empire that we forced upon you." Stated Risson as he paused for a moment. "We are about to enter an age of change; the Empire is no longer the largest and most powerful force in the galaxy as we once believed we are a tiny small power within the borders of a much larger and stronger power. We are lucky that this power wishes only to let us live in peace with itself and as such they will give us three great gifts. First this communication system will be remaining so that the Empire will be able to communicate with each other in ways we never dreamed possible and the last two gifts will be coming soon as the Tau'ri will be Homeflying two worlds within Home system and they will be the colonizable in around 2 years."

Risson paused for a moment and took a deep breath.

"This is a time of change and we will have to adapt more then what we ever had to but the Empire will live on but remember the Spirits of Emperor Past are guiding us." stated Emperor Risson "Goodnight."

 **Onboard the Missouri, President Carter watched the speech before turning toward Hackett.**

"I wonder Admiral how much change this Empire is actually ready for?" inquired Carter as she remembered all the massive changes that took place within the past two decades since they actively began to plan to announce the Stargate Program to the World. The rate of change had only increase as more worlds came into the Tau'ri alliance and the technology from the gate was integrated more and more.

"Likely less then the colonies where." admitted Hackett "We will put the Race on their own communication network, I think if we dumped our culture on them in the form of TV and the like their heads may explode."

"Likely." Admitted Carter "Your plan to evacuate Ovea is already underway?"

"It should begin in a few hours I am putting Captain Cass of the Indianapolis in command of the operation. The plan is to load up the ships already in orbit with passengers and towing them to Home. Here we can unload them and tow them back to Ovea, round trip 8 hours, almost all that time is actually unloading the passengers." explained Hackett "I will leave only a dozen ships to carry it out the rest of the fleet will deploy to the Lanagara front in case of war."

"Let's hope that the sight of the 7th fleet will make them realize that war isn't the best move." Stated Hackett "If not then the 7th Fleet may get very busy very fast."

"We are turning out more ships as fast as we can and new models will soon be leaving dry dock and entering the fleet. They will fill the missing roles within the fleet" reassured Carter as she turned toward a nearby aid. The aid walked up handed Carter a computer pad. "Admiral I have been considering this for a while and I would like to offer you another position."

Hackett raised an eyebrow, outside of being in command of a major world like Lanagra, Mars or Venus being in the command of the main war fleet of the Tau'ri was about as high as a person could go. He turned to his President who handed him the computer pad.

"The Prometheus Fleet?" inquired Hackett "Never heard of it."

"We are preparing a massive deep space recon ship to head to a distance galaxy and going along with it will be a fleet of warships." Explained Carter, the fact that they were preparing a deep space recon ship was well known and was public knowledge. The blue-prints of the ship, it's capabilities and the size of the ship along with it's overall mission wasn't known. "This pad contains an outline of the plan, fleet size and operational goals of the mission. I want you to command the fleet when the time comes. I want you to review the plan and see if it is something you would like to take on."

"I am honored Madam President." said Hackett as the Missouri prepared to leave Home.

"Excuses me Sir, Madam President but a request from the Imperial Palace has come up." Said an aid as she appeared beside the Admiral. "Turns out they want to know what to do with a Opotochi named Kassquit, she seams to have been raised by the Race and has put in a request to stay among her Empire. She doesn't want to go back to her home world."

"Have this be conformed that it isn't forced in any way and if it isn't then I see no reason why we will force her back to her own people." stated Carter as she took a drink of her coffee and looked at it somewhat disapproving, it had gotten cold while she was gone. "Just let the Palace know we will also accept any member of the Race or citizen of the Empire who wants to leave the Empire. It is a two street."

"Understood Madam President." Confirmed the aid as she moved off to carry out the order.

"What is the time frame for launch?" inquired Hackett as he looked over the data.

"We hope to have the fleet ready and underway in 4 years with arrival in the target galaxy in…." started Carter

"18 months, so mission launch will happen in 2035 or 36 and arrive in this…." said Hackett as he looked at the Asgard name.

"We have been calling it the Torch Galaxy, Prometheus stealing fire from Gods and our Prometheus recon ship must travel to this galaxy so that we can steal the knowledge of the creation of the universe." Explained Carter before shrugging. "Not the best name I admit but It is a better name then the long list of numbers and letters we had before this and the Asgard name is kind of hard to say."

"Better then calling your homeworld Home." added Hackett as he looked out the window. "Our your race, the Race."

"True." Confirmed Carter

 **On Ovea the males and females of the Race still had trouble understanding what was going on but they followed the orders from their Emperor.** Males and Females arrived at their local spaceports which were under Tau'ri control and using their own shuttle crafts where flown up to the massive ships in orbit. These ships had all been colonization ships but had sense been used for shipping items back and forth between Vantic 5 and Home. Once the ships where full a Tau'ri ship would come alongside the much larger Race ship and using a tractor beam pull the ship out of orbit and into hyperspace to return to Home.

Watching a mass of their former oppressors move down the street was Prince Unia, he stood looking out over his city from on top of the balcony of his family Palace/Castle. He wanted to reach out and crush the Race, to smash them under his hand like they had done to his people. He knew that he couldn't do that, the Tau'ri who was the true power behind him could, but they didn't want to. He let out a sigh which was made of multiple fast clicks he knew he should be thankful, yes, he couldn't get his revenge but the Tau'ri didn't want to rule his people through him. The Tau'ri could take over his world, luckily, they wanted to deal with him as an equal in standing. He wasn't the equal in power to the Tau'ri but in standing they where the same. He was a lesser Prince of a city state dealing with a ruler of a much larger and stronger city state, the Tau'ri. It was a position he knew well if only from the other side, seeing how his father had dealt with lesser states before the arrival of the Race he began to plan his moves on how to deal with the Tau'ri.

"Prince Unia." Said a voice behind him as he turned to see three older males dressed in the cloths of artisans. One wore a white covering which was stained in multiple colors, the other two had small hammers on belts while one had a thick pair of magnifying glasses hanging from his belt.

"Ah…I am happy to see you three made it through the occupation alright." said Prince Unia

"They had us doing things far below our skills." said the Painter "I was painting houses and my two counterparts where laying stone."

"Not worthy of three of the greatest artisans our race has ever made." said Prince Unia as he took a breath. "As you can imagine I have a lot of things to do to restore our world, but I want you three to start at once on works to honor the liberation of our people."

"At once." stated the sculpture maker as he began to think of what sort of stone he would want to use and what subject he would cover. "Where will our works be placed?"

"These will not be for us, I intend to give your works to the Tau'ri as a gift and a sign of our friendship." explained Prince as the three artists eyes widened a bit. "So you are to do your best work, understood."

"Yes, my Prince." said the artists as they left the room.

 **Kara Thrace raised a glass full of beer to the air as she drank to her victory, of over a 100 pilots she had reached the top spot.** She would have the pick of the jobs and she planned to take the money even if it meant having to stay away from the colonies for months at end. She didn't have the job officially yet, she had to do a few more things but they where easy. Pass a background check which was basically a more detail question and answer season with that truth telling machine the Tau'ri had. She had done that before for her old job, then she had to prove she could land a viper on grass and on dirt roads, the areas her future students would be working out of meant they had to know how to do those things. She also had to prove she knew how to do a water landing and considering she had done one in the war, she wasn't concern.

"Good job, Kara." Said her wing mate Justinian with only a slight amount of disappoint in his voice.

"Sorry kid, 23rd out of over a 100 pilots is nothing to be ashamed about." reassured Kara "And frak you may luck out in the end if a few of the frakers behind me drop out opening a spot for you."

"I don't think that will happen." Admitted Justinian with a heavy sigh. "Well at least I am still in the military, this has to look good on my records and I will have something to say to the students in a few weeks."

"Oh…ya, you're going to talk at your old high school for Colonial Military Day." said Kara as her own childhood memories of the day came back. "Buch of old men and women talking about the Cylon War, half the school was asleep until they began showing off the tools. Make sure you bring some like that. Just standing in your uniform isn't going to impress anyone."

"I hope it impresses Acacia." Whispered Justinian into his drink.

"Just talk to the girl and see if you fly or if you get shot down." stated Kara to the love sick puppy. "Nothing more you can do."

 **The news covered the war on Ovea for a couple of days before moving on to things of much greater interest to the viewing public.** News items such as a group of Big Foot hunters using Asgard sensors attached to drones to hunt down big foot in Washington State and the box office returns for the newest movies. Life was getting back on to normal as Torren Sheppard returned to school at the Daniel Jackston University on Earth.

"Have you finished the homework on translations yet?" inquired Samantha O'Neill as she along with Torren and Ashely sat at a stone table located just outside one of the main buildings on campus.

"Not yet, I hate Ancient." answered Torren

"You two should be used to it, you both grew up around the stargate and all this crap." complained Ashely "I just wish I knew what we were being roped into. All Colonel O'Neill said was it would be in our best interest to get an education and get high marks but he never said what for. I mean we both handled ourselves great with the whole Race thing and Samantha did great with the refugees, what more is needed."

"Well if we want to get in on the Prometheus fleet we will need to be at our very best." Said Sam as both of her friends looked at her. She gave a knowing smile, that would have graced her father when he was leader of SG-1 or her grandfather who happened to be the same person thanks to cloning. "What you two didn't know about that?"

"The what?" inquired Ashely

"They are preparing a fleet for some deep space recon mission, if what my grandpa told me is true it will be on the cutting edge of exploration and discovery." stated Sam, sometomes having her grandfather be the biggest war hero in human history and being the god-daughter to the President helped get her information normal people wouldn't get. "We are talking about doing things that our parents did, meet new cultures and see what is over the horizon."

"Sounds good but I still wish we didn't have to know Ancient." confirmed Ashely as they went back to doing their homework.

 **Colonel Drugov let out a heavy sigh as he listened to another lizard complain about now free Ovea people had done.** He had been at this for about two weeks and it was the longest two weeks of his life.

"I almost miss the Colonials shooting at me." Complained Colonel Drugov as he listened to a male or at least he thought it was a male complain about how a group of Opochti had not followed his orders.

"Are you even listening to me, you Tosevite?" inquired the Male "By the Emperor I ordered that group of crawlers to unload my vehicle and they refused."

"Are they your employees? Do they work for you?" inquired Colonel Drugov already knowing the likely answer.

"No but they are crawlers and I am a male of rank and I required their help." Stated the male "They should say yes superior sir and get to work."

"And they said no, they don't have to listen to you." countered Drugov as the male blinked at him. "Just like I don't have to listen to any more of this. They aren't your slaves and they don't have to help you out if they didn't want to."

"So this is justice, I feared as much. You Tau'ri Tosevites didn't do anything after that riot and now you fail to keep order." Stated the male as Drugov wanted to laugh at what the male was calling a riot. It was a group of 10 young Opochti who had gotten a little drunk on their version of beer and ended up breaking a couple of windows. They where arrested and sentence according to traditional Opochti laws, the young boys spent a couple of hours in what seamed to be a pillory and where pelted with rotten food before being forced to pay for damages. Overall the punishment wouldn't have flown on Earth or any Tau'ri World, but it seamed to work here and the drunk kids where punished. "I demand to put into contact with the complaint department."

"I will make sure to punish crimes during the transition, but this isn't a crime." stated Drogov as he leaned forward a bit, before pulling out his pistol and placing it on the table. The male's eyes widened at the sight of the firearm. "Also I will tell you this, it is the same thing I told that Rancher who threatened to fight us to keep the Opochti farmers from returning to the land he stole. You aren't the top dog anymore, you are leaving this world and it is going back to it's people. We Tau'ri are only here as a place holder and believe me the people you oppressed would be more then happy to show you what a real riot is like but we are in their way. So leave now before I get angry."

"It…shall be done." stated the male in anger as he moved out of the room.

"I really miss the Colonials, when them you can shoot back here the Race try to kill someone with paperwork." complained Drugov as he wished he was back in the colonies instead of dealing with the Race.

 **Starbuck wasn't missing the colonies she was looking forward to her new job and the money that would be coming with that.** She had found herself onboard a the Tau'ri battleship Bismarck which was transporting four whole wings of Colonial Vipers to the Pegasus Galaxy. Since she didn't have full access across the massive warship she spent most of her days in the hanger looking over the Vipers. She happened to be in the hanger when the ship lurched a bit, the sudden movement caused her to stumble a bit but all the Tau'ri seemed to take it in stride. Then before her eyes the hanger doors opened, and she could look out into the vacuum of space, her first instinct was to run but then she remembered the Tau'ri shield kept air and heat in.

"Are we there already?" inquired Kara to a nearby Tau'ri pilot.

"In a way, we are at the Gate." explained the pilot which confused Kara as she watched a couple of Owls fly into the hanger. As the Owls flew in she could look out and what she saw amazed her, in the distance she spotted a distance ring which seamed to be surrounded by Tau'ri warships and battle stations. However there where also large ships she had never seen before with giant golden pyramid shape centers. She was about to ask what was going on when the ring began to glow before an explosion of energy shot out of the ring before settling down. It looked like a giant pool of water contained within in ring. Then out of that pool came a Tau'ri battleship followed by two Daedalus class cruisers and lastly the ship which still haunted the dreams of every colonial, the Ragnarok.

Kara found herself holding her breath like a little kid who had just seen something she couldn't explain in the darkness. She watched as the Ragnarok, the superweapon which had whipped Caprica City off the map within seconds without hurting a single person pass by her ship.

"All hands prepare for gate travel…all hands prepare for gate travel." Came a voice over the speaker as the hanger doors closed and the Bismarck began moving again. For a moment Kara thought everything was normal then before her eyes a blue pool of energy appeared in the front of the hanger and began moving rapidly toward her. She turned to run only to see that the Tau'ri for the most part where paying attention to it, some had camera phones out and recording it. Then it rushed over her and within moments it was over and everything seamed back to normal. "All hands welcome to the Pegasus Galaxy…ETA to Atlantis 2 hours."

 **The Ragnarok moved into the astrosphere of a barren lifeless world in the Home System of the Race.** The small Tau'ri crew looked over the scans of the planet, it was similar to Mars only instead of being red it was browner in nature.

"Looks like we will have to increase the strength of the local gravity, it is too light anyone would bounce as they try to walk." Said one of the crew "The soil and atmosphere make up will be easy to fix, the issue will be water. Likelihood the planet will be a desert world."

"Perfect, it is what the Race wants." stated the Captain in command of the ship. "What about the other world?"

"A water world according to our computer projections." stated another member of the crew. "It's an ice ball world now and melting the ice makes it a water world."

"That will be a problem." stated the Captain "Well one thing at a time begin the process to increase the local gravity and then we will work on the water world issue."

"Yes, sir." Confirmed the crew as the Ragnarok began to deploy, it quickly unfolded from travel form to the cross form which allowed it to do it work. The work was at first invisible to the naked eye as large parts of the area above the core where beamed up stored in the computer for a second or two as the atoms where rearranged into a much denser form before being beamed back down to add to the new core. With the heavier core the planet's gravity slowly began to climb. It was a slow process but one the crew of the Ragnarok had done before.

 **Acacia hated coming back from vacation, going back to class and to work wasn't as fun as being on vacation.** Even the new joy of having her boyfriend being stationed only an hour down the road from her didn't make her enjoy being back to her normal life. Robert had put in for a larger apartment in the area that the Tau'ri base we taking over for housing and it had been approved and she planned to move in with him once she found someone to take up her part of the lease for her current place. Even so she was spending most of her time at his place. She pulled her car into the parking lot of her old high school and after taking a deep breath she stepped out.

The building was as she remembered it, a large four-story building with a large single-story area spreading out behind the larger center building. She walked toward the side student parking lot and saw the large grassy area to the side of the school. She remembered track meets where she threw disk across the field before going to the high jump. There was a large track with ran around the area with a grandstand. In that grassy field now sat two colonial Raptors and a Viper sat on a flat bed trailer. A recon vehicle sat on the field as well and she could see dozens of men and women setting up displays.

"Acacia!" yelled a voice as she turned to see some of her old friends from school standing there.

"James, how are you?" she asked to her friend James who stood there in a black colonial marine uniform, including his rifle.

"I am good, I am out of the core now and I am in school." Said James before shaking his head. "Do you remember theses days from when we were in school?"

"It was so boring." added another one of her friends, Amy as she stood there in an olive green uniform of the colonial army. It was the same uniform that Acacia had in her closet. "Who would have imagined that we be those old timers standing around and answering questions from bored students who could care less."

"Well who would think we would run into the Tau'ri." added a new voice as Acacia turned around and smiled.

"Little Justinian how are you?" laughed Acacia before she noticed that her shy friend was dressed in the flight suit of a Colonial Viper pilot. "Wow, you make it to flight school?"

"I did." said Justinian with pride in his voice. "I actually almost made it into a program set up by the Tau'ri to get Viper pilots to train off world cultures."

"Impressive, how close?" inquired Amy

"23rd out of a 104, cut off was 20." Admitted Justinian

"Damn, that was close." said Acacia before playfully punching her friend in the arm, failing to notice the blush on the man's face. "Impressive, you have grown since the last time we all hung out."

"What about you Acacia? Are you here to speak?" inquired Amy

"No." admitted Acacia as she turned to look at her old friend. "My brother asked my boyfriend to speak so I am here to watch."

"Ah…" said James as behind Acacia's back Justinian face showed nothing but pain.

"Boyfriend? Series?" inquired Justinian

"Yes, frak if I hadn't told him not to ask me to marry him while we where on vacation then he would have." explained Acacia "We had some issues in our way, he was stationed off world for one but those issues are out the way now. We actually are now living together."

"I see." said Justinian "So he is in the military as well, is he a pilot?"

"No, he is army." said Acacia as Justinian felt pride, he was a viper pilot and they the pride of the Colonial Fleet and therefor the Colonial military. Acacia smiled as she saw something coming. "Here he comes now."

Her friends turned toward the road but no car was heading down the road leading into the parking lot, then they heard an engine sound and they looked up to see a black Tau'ri Owl hovering overhead. It was one of the models with side doors and a small amount of Tau'ri troopers where clearly visible as the Owl came in for a landing on the grass. The Tau'ri moved off their transport and began to set up folding tables before covering it with a banner. It was almost the same set up that was before the Colonial Viper and Raptor. One of the Tau'ri a tall man with brown hair shouted out some orders before moving toward them. He was in one of the Tau'ri power armor and had a rifle slung across his back, only his visor helmet was off replaced with a simple cap.

"Your boyfriend is a Tau'ri?" inquired Justinian

"Yes, he actually captured Medea and I during the war and was extra kind and looked after us after Medea lost her legs." explained Acacia as Robert jogged the short distance to the little group of colonials. His eyes moved to Amy and James both of them where armed just as he was but none of them made moves toward their weapons.

"I hope your brother likes having an Owl here instead of just me?" inquired Robert as Acacia laughed.

"I am sure he will hate it." confirmed Acacia with a roll of her eyes "Allow me to introduce you to some old friends, this is Amy, James and Justinian."

"Pleasure to meet you." Said Robert as he offered his hand and every one but Justinian took it. Robert shrugged it off thinking he just didn't like Tau'ri not knowing the real reason. Before anything more could be said the doors leading into the school opened and the first group of students walked out. The front of the group stopped and paused for a moment before spotting the Tau'ri Owl sitting in the grass.

"Tau'ri cool!" yelled someone as a mad rush of students ran toward the Owl.

"Looks like you better get going." Advised Acacia "I'll come and see you in a little bit."

"Alright." Said Robert as the two of them came together for a moment and shared a brief kiss before Robert took off to deal with the mad rush of students asking questions to the small group of Tau'ri there.

 **General Young looked out the window at his office on Valhalla, before him was one of if not the most advanced city in Tau'ri space.** While the newly built capital and Atlantis clearly beat the Capital of Valhalla the other cities the equal of Celin however they were catching up. Part of the decades long progress was upgrading every city and infrastructure across Earth and later Lanagara. That program had only grown as more and more worlds joined the Alliance.

"So this Lucian Alliance group is joining us?" inquired Young

"Officially not yet, they are a protectorate, but it is only a matter of time until they join officially." Said General Leong as she sat down across the desk from him. She had a cup of tea in her hands and while this was an informal meeting, having the head of the Tau'ri military in the room meant Young was on edge. "We are expecting the arrival of the first shipment of that metal Zephray to arrive here within the week. Will your teams be ready for it?"

"They say they will and the reports have them actually ahead of schedule." Explained Young

"Good, then we should have our first ZPM in about a year and how long until the other assembly lines will be up and running?" inquired General Leong

"Not long after that, they expect to have up to 7 lines up within 3 months with another 12 finished within a year." Reported Young

"Good, very good so within a year we will have 20 assembly systems building ZPMs." Stated General Loeng "Maybe we will be able to give a ZPM or two to Dr. Rush. It may shut him up."

"As someone who has had the pleasure of knowing Rush for a few years it will not be enough to shut him up." confirmed Young as General Loeng nodded her head.

"Still we don't really know what they will run into in this galaxy and having a ZPM will be very helpful." stated General Loeng as she let out a sigh. "When will be launching the probes to go scout this galaxy?"

"They have already launched." stated Young, the probes themselves where nothing special about the size of the old space shuttle loaded to the max with sensors, communication systems and a powerful hyperdrive. Outside of a self-destruct they carried no weapons and had an automated message declaring their peaceful exploration nature but since their targets where black holes the likelihood of running into any space born race was low.

"Good." Stated General Leong "Depending on the military situation here when the fleet launches I may assign a ZPM or two to the exploration fleet. Maybe the idea that he will get the toy he wants will get Rush off both our backs."

"It may help but this is Rush we are talking about." Countered Young as he shook his head and looked over some other information on his data card. "The Normandy class frigate has been cleared for mass production and the other new ship types are on schedule for testing."

"Good." Confirmed General Loeng "And the new Power armor and Assault rifles?"

"Entering testing phase as well, the new power armor looks very promising but there are still issues with the new Assault rifles." stated Young, he had seen the reports about the new rifle. It was hard for him to call it a rifle, it was in truth a fast firing railgun and the new power armor was far more advanced and had an active camo system.

"Alright, well I think I have everything I need." Stated General Leong "With luck things will calm down and we can finally get used to the new world we find ourselves in."

"Things have changed rapidly that is for sure." Confirmed Young "A few years of calm will do everyone good however I don't think we will have a years of peace."

"Agreed, it is a big galaxy and we are exploring more of it every day." Confirmed General Loeng as she stood up.

"General, if I may say something personal?" inquired Young as the Tigress looked at him.

"Carry on General." Ordered General Loeng

"Is it really that good of an idea to even launch this Prometheus fleet to this galaxy?" inquired Young "We still are so busy exploring this galaxy and the Pegasus Galaxy, also if the ORI galaxy every gets their act together and settle their civil war they could be a major threat. This seams to be a waste of resources."

"I agree with you that we should wait however that is before we consider the possibilities that the answer to the creation of the universe brings to the table." stated General Leong "The Ancients themselves sent ships out there, to build stargate networks and to find the answers. If they believed this to be that level of importance's then who knows what sort of wonders can be unlocked by finishing their mission."

"I understand." Stated General Young

"Also it is part of human nature, we are always looking for the next great horizon to explore and this one is a great one to explore." Added Leong "Will there be great dangers yes, but also great benefits. We are a power that spreads across 2 galaxies we have to assume there are other powers that span whole galaxies and beyond and I want to know about them before they reach us. That is part of this mission as well, we need to know what threats are out there. Do you understand General?"

"I do." said Young as he saluted the higher-ranking office before she left the room, as she left he couldn't help but shake the feeling that they where walking straight into trouble. Well they had dealt with trouble before and at least here it would be a very distance trouble.

 **It was a great day for the Opochti people as Prince Unia stood at the end of a long column of warriors, behind him was a shuttlecraft of the Race.** It was in fact the last shuttle craft of the Race on the planet. The last Race starship was overhead ready to be towed back to Home in disgraces by a Tau'ri warship. Prince Unia smiled as a very angry Fleet Lord Straha and Fleet Lord Reffet walked out of the prison where the two of them where being held.

"You are enjoying this aren't you terrorist." stated Straha with a hiss.

"Truth." Stated Prince Unia in the language of the Race. "I am enjoying this and I will enjoy it more when you are all gone, you have done damage to our world which will never fully recover from."

"We where bring culture to your world but things turned out against our plans." Stated Straha with an angry hiss.

"You two are the last members of the Race on Ovea and now it is time for you to leave and never return." stated Prince Unia as he stepped aside. "And be warned if you return you will die."

"We understand." stated Fleet Lord Reffet as he stepped onto the shuttle. For a moment Straha remained and glared at everyone for a moment before stepping onto the shuttle. Moments after the shuttle craft door closed the ship lifted off the ground and like that the last member of the Race was off Ovea, Ovea was finally fully free.

 **Epilogue (in a Distance Galaxy)**

Battle raged across the massive city as the outer shell of the city space station took fire from the combined Asari and Turian fleets which had arrived to do battle with the Geth Fleet which surrounded the Citadel. The massive city space station had closed its long arms to form a solid cinder to protect itself but a massive ship had gotten through before the arms closed. The dark ship had attached itself to the Citadel Council Spire in the center of the main ring.

"We need to end this!" yelled a figure as he took cover behind a low wall as he took fire from a man he had once been the most respected member of the Council Spectres.

"You have already lost Garrus Vakarian, you should have remained in C-Sec not that it would have mattered in the end. In a few moments Sovereign will gain control over the Citadel systems and the portal will open and the Reapers will return." Explained Saren as Garrus turned and fired a few shots with his sniper rifle causing Saren to dodge the fire.

"Saren you will kill billions to help the Reapers! Why?" yelled another member of the team going to take him down, the Asari Liara T'Soni as she fired a bolt of blue biotic energy toward Saren "Trillions will die, including every Turian your people, Palaven will burn along with the rest of the galaxy."

"If it must burn then let it burn, but you fail to see that the Reapers need organics join us and let us save the galaxy." stated Saren

"The Reapers are controlling you don't you see that?" inquired Garrus

"If the Reapers really care about organics then why did they kill off the Protheans?" yelled Liara as the third member of their team, the Quarin Tali'Zorah as she snuck around the side using some of the multiple statues and pillars for cover. "They are lying to you?"

"Come on Saren, you have severed the Citadel Council for decades why betray them now? You must see that the Reapers are lying to you? Help us we can stop them." Stated For a long time Saren remained quiet before pulling his pistol.

"You may be right, I can feel Sovereigns pull on me…." said Saren "It is too late for me, good luck."

Then without warning Saren put the pistol to his face and pulled the trigger ending his life.

"Tali, move to the controls open the arms so our fleets can attack." ordered Garrus as he moved to the fallen Council Spector. It didn't take long before the sound of the massive arms of the Citadel opening could be heard. The moments it opened Turian fighters swarmed in and began to attack the massive Reaper ship in the heart of the Citadel. As it opened wider, the larger ships including the massive dreadnought class warships began to fire. Focused on opening a portal to the rest of the Reaper fleet the Reaper ship Sovereign began to break apart until finally it let go of the spire.

"We stopped them." Said Liara as she moved toward Garrus who was standing over the dead Saren.

"We did." Said Garrus with a smile as suddenly Saren spoke in a voice that wasn't his own.

"You think you have won, but all you have done is stopped this plan." Said Saren as the Reapers spoke through him. "Our fleet is massive, and our technology is far beyond you, we will come. You have done is delayed the storm and in time you will be harvested."

"I don't think so, we will fight on." Said Garrus as he shot the body one more time ending the link.

"We need to prepare." stated Liara as she looked at the damaged done by a single Reaper. "Imagine what a whole fleet could do to us."

"We need to form a larger team to help us prepare." added Tali "We only have the three of us plus Wrex, Captain Kirrahe and a new ship of our own would be a lot more useful than using the STG ship we have borrowed from Captain Kirrahe and his STGs."

"Agreed, I'll look to see if we can find more people to help us." stated Liara as she placed her blue skinned hand under her chin. "Maybe if we can get more species on the team the better."

"Agreed, we need to prepare for the Reaper's return." Stated Tali

"We need to be prepared for anything." Stated Garrus as he looked at the damage done by a single Reaper ship. "Who knows what will be coming our way in the future but we need to be ready for anything."

 **Well this is the End of Contact of Race's coming in about 3 weeks currently aiming for the weekend of the 20th** **of April 2018 will be the next story Contact at the Citadel. (I changed the name). I am taking this long as a sort of break and to give me time to get ahead in the story. I want to make some things clear, first I plan to set the story around Mass Effect 2 beginning of 3. There is no Earth or humans in the Mass Effect Galaxy until the Tau'ri arrive. So until then, thanks Wilkins75.**


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